Down with the devil
by GalliaDavia
Summary: Undertaker/OC. Just an idea about a locker room romance (no slash) and love, friendship and respect in the world of wrestling. More WWE stars involved. Suck at summaries, just have a look.
1. Strange happenings

_I just recently returned to the wonderful world of wrestling... after having missed sooo many unbelievable things, I had to do a lot of catching up. After watching all those matches and backstage stuff, __story lines and funny moments, I decided to give this a try, and yes, I´m up for some smut as well. __In the end, I decided NOT to specify exactly when this story takes place. You´ll meet some old friends and __enemies and some new people I made up...I´ll probably refer to some things that really happened and others that can´t be found like that in the WWF/WWE history books...I also decided not to mention too many details about the__ respective shows and cities things take place at...I am just not familiar enough with the whole thing to do so. It may be kind of heretic to use exactly that quote, but be honest - Taker´s just the best there is, best there was, best there ever will be :-)_

_I don´t own any of the WWE characters._

* * *

Mark, just returning from the showers, not even turned his head at the knocking at his locker room´s door.

„Yeah", he drawled.

„Hey there."

It was T.J., one of the indispensable gofers around. „Chris sends me over, asking how your shoulder´s s doing."

Mark had sat down meanwhile, carefully moving the mentioned shoulder.

„I´d appreciate it if he could have a look at it", he stated.

„Alright!" T.J. nodded. „He thought so, says he´ll be with you in a minute!"

Mark only nodded.

The handyman had almost closed the door behind him, but then poked his head in once again. „By the way, great match!"

The nervous, never growing up help had already closed the door before Mark could answer anything. He was alone again.

The Undertaker, the legendary star of the wrestling business, sat back with a small sigh.

Bo Cedric, alias Sledgehammer, the new star, had had to be treated first. Well, as long as the boy needed the physio team more than he did, he would be contented, even if his hurting shoulder made him feel his own age right now. He was in good shape after he had had to take a break because of a recent injury. It had been an unlucky misunderstanding out there that had made him land unexpectedly hard and overstretch the muscles of his arm and shoulder about half an hour ago. Well, an unlucky misunderstanding as well as a lack of experience on his opponent´s side.

His next visitor walked into the room without any warning. Mark had just made it into some underwear and a sweatpants and turned, only to watch Shawn entering the room, a second person right on his heels.

„Hey, big man, I brought you some company", the colleague and friend told him, stepping aside to let Jade pass. She was one of the longtime assistants of the physio team´s boss, Chris. Right now, she had entered the room behind Shawn with a devilish grin on her face, obviously amused by something she and the Hearbreak Kid had just been talking about.

„Great fight, besides", Shawn told Mark.

„Thanks", the taller man only answered.

„So, your shoulder ?" Jade asked.

Mark nodded.

„Let´s have a look", she said. „And by the way, good to see you around!"

„Believe it or not", Shawn addressed Mark. „Our golden boy from down along the hall just virtually shouted our girl here out of his locker room!"

Mark only raised an eyebrow, asking a silent „Why ?" that way.

For a glorious, if even only temporary winner, Cedric had admittedly rather hurried through his victory celebration at the ring, only to haul for treatment like a spoiled child for candy the moment he had made it backstage.

Shawn put his hands to his sides and bent a little forward to emphasize his next words.

„_Mr. Cedric _requested to be treated by the chef physio _only_", he explained.

Jade had circled Mark meanwhile to palpate the shoulder in question.

„There, I take it ?" she asked.

He nodded.

„Thought so", she muttered, trailing the strained muscle with her fingertips.

„That true ?" Mark addressed the physiotherapist after another moment, referring to what the friend had just told him.

She nodded.

„Yup."

Mark didn´t comment. He only gave a small disbelieving chuckle, exchanging a look with Shawn, the two men obviously sharing the same opinion about that.

„Idiot!" Shawn commented heartily.

It was true, Chris was the boss of the physio team, a man with decades of experience and loads of know-how. But Jade had been in the same business and working with him for years by now, and it was known among the athletes that the girl had magic hands.

Mark still remembered the first time she had taken care of him, after an evening full of unlucky incidents and mishaps. He had been sore, sick and angry. Things between him and his boss had been tense back then, and he had wanted to freak out the moment they had sent him that tiny plain-Jane looking girl to take care of him. But he hadn´t. It hadn´t been the girl´s fault. And he had had to admit later on that she knew what she was doing.

Jade worked surprisingly strong small fingers through the thick muscles of his shoulder by now while he recalled that night. Thinking about it, he found that this was probably one of Bo Cedric´s uncountable mistakes that should be forgiven to the boy. Jade had worked with Mark for a long time. She knew about his injuries, his weak points, how his convalescence worked. And her boss Chris was not the guy to allow people to shout at his assistants, even if he had probably sent Jade out in the first place to calm the waves. Should that boy go on believing meanwhile that he was in better hands only because they were better paid.

„How´s that ?" Jade asked, making him outstretch his arm.

„Alright."

„Lift your arm, please."

He did as told.

„Hurts ?"

„Slightly."

„Move it backwards. Hurts as well ?"

He tilted his head, frowning.

„Yeah."

Jade gave only a small sound of acknowledge and changed position to go on with her work. She didn´t take offence by her patient´s silent manner. She knew that he was no talkative guy. Besides that, it was entertaining to watch how communication between the taciturn giant and the much smaller and much more talkative Heartbreak Kid worked. Not being that close friends, but working long enough with each other, she had witnessed them agreeing on a subject like that many times before - with Shawn usually putting into words what they both were thinking in the end.

It surprised her only more when Mark suddenly spoke up.

„You look tired", he stated, addressing her.

The statement caused a weak grin on her side.

„Well, I _am_ tired."

„After one day on the road ?" Shawn inquired good-humoredly. „What are we old men supposed to say ?"

„I didn´t get a lot of sleep last night", she said with a shrug. "I´ll be fine tomorrow."

Concentrated on her work, Jade hadn´t even realized that her patient had been observing her.

Thinking about how Cedric had just shouted at her to leave him the hell alone, with Chris intervening quietly by sending her over here, she found that she was grateful. The man known as the Undertaker was the more polite one of the two wrestlers, easier to treat even if really injured and definitely the more agreeable character, and for that, right now, better for her raw nerves.

„I really hope that his is not about that freak of an ex-boyfriend again ?" Shawn inquired meanwhile, disapproval ringing through his voice.

Jade smiled.

„No, this is just about a kind of over-motivated next-door neighbor and his girlfriend at the hotel who kept the whole floor awake all night", she answered with a smile. „But thanks for asking."

The Heartbreak Kid nodded. His wife and Jade had been friends for a long time even before their marriage. It was why he knew about the trouble that had finally led to Jade moving again only weeks ago.

„You´re up for a drink ?" he then addressed Mark.

„I´m done for", Mark answered.

„Quitter", Shawn commented. „You´re just afraid that we´ll bump into our up-and-coming talent´s celebration somewhere!"

He got up.

„But Jade here will surely advise you not to lift any bottles with that shoulder of yours tonight anyway", he teased.

„Definitely", Jade confirmed sarcastically, winking at Mark.

„Bad luck for you, my friend", Shawn told Mark, winked at the physiotherapist, nodded to the friend and wished the two of them a good night.

XXX

Three days later, after a short enough appearance of the Undertaker at the night´s show, including the exchange of some blows, he ended up with with the same problem, the shoulder giving him trouble.

„What´s your schedule for tomorrow ?" Jade asked while taking care of him.

„Day off, so far. So only some workout."

She nodded.

„I´ll be at the arena tomorrow from nine to at least three before I return there for the night. You should probably drop in and let me have another look at that. It should have gotten better instead of worse!"

„Don´t get upset", he told her with a grin. „This is not due to your lack of competence, this has something to do with a thing called age."

She smiled.

„Yeah, come on! I got other people around complaining over symptoms like those on a daily basis and they´re way younger !"

She circled the bench he was sitting on and worked her fingers slowly along his upper arm again.

„You still look tired", he stated after a minute.

„I look _again_ tired", she corrected with a small smile, but without looking at him.

„Any pain during the stretching ?" she inquired then, done with another round of that.

„No."

„Any pain now ?"

Carefully moving the arm again, he nodded. It made her frown.

„What the hell is causing that trouble ?" she muttered, more to herself than to him, sitting down right next to him now, letting her hand trail along his upper arm once more.

„I´m gonna ask Chris to have a look at that", she said then.

„You know, it´s not a big thing."

„Yeah, not right now, but I don´t want it turn into one", she contradicted. „Unfortunately, after all the shit that went wrong out there tonight, he´s quite busy right now."

„It´s definitely nothing that couldn´t wait until tomorrow", he said.

She threw him a doubtful look, but nodded afterwards.

„Alright. Then we´re done here for now."

She let her hands rest on her knees for a moment, composing herself before getting up again. She was very tired indeed. He watched her closing her eyes and slowly tilting her head to one side for a moment.

„Turn", he said suddenly.

She opened her eyes again and looked at him, surprised.

„I said - turn -", he repeated insistently.

Jade found herself doing as she had been told, quietly wondering why.

He put large hands down to her shoulders and slid his thumbs carefully up from there along the back of her neck, the soft stretching of the uptight muscles leading to instant relief. She had to put her palms down to the bench beneath her to steady herself when he carefully raised the pressure. She felt her muscles and skin starting to burn under his hands, but the result was already worth that.

„When was the last time someone took care of you, huh ?" he inquired.

Jade was too busy enjoying his treatment to manage an answer, but it seemed that he hadn´t expected one anyway.

Something metallic hitting the ground somewhere outside the locker room and a harsh voice swearing made Jade suddenly become aware of her surroundings again. She straightened up. He stopped what he had been doing.

She opened her eyes again, glad that she was sitting with her back turned to him. She was supposed to treat him, not the other way round. Everything else was just a damn lack of professionalism on her side, even regarding the fact that they had known each other for so long.

„Thanks", she muttered, slightly embarassed.

„You´re welcome."

She hurried to get up and gathered up her stuff, throwing her patient only the shortest look while doing so.

„See you tomorrow then", she muttered, wondering what had gotten into herself to let him do this.

He only nodded, watching her leave.

XXX

Another couple of days later, Jade followed the Hearbreak Kid with the eyes on his way out of the locker room. Turning to grab her kit, she bumped right into Mark. How he had managed to appear right behind her without a sound was a mystery to her.

„Damn, would you stop ?!" she complained. „You´re out of the ring!"

He only chuckled, leaving her wondering how he could manage to make it sound that devilish and good-humored at the same time.

She looked up to him. There was no way for her to get past him this way.

„Would you please let me pass ?" she asked after a moment, surprised by his behaviour, but nevertheless smiling.

He looked down to her, the beginning of a grin around the edges of his mouth.

„Something wrong ?" she asked when he didn´t do it, getting suspicious.

„No", he answered mysteriously, sounding quietly amused.

He took a step forward and put a large hand around her upper arm to maneuvre her carefully with her back against the wall right next to them.

„You´re not scared, are you ?" he asked, trying to read the expression on her face.

Jade gazed up to him, stunned. She had gotten used to all these gigantic guys with their swelling muscles, their moods and issues, their odd appearances, but him of all people behaving like this took her completely by surprise.

„No", she answered honestly, unsure where this conversation would lead. „But what in the..."

She wasn´t allowed to finish the sentence because he bent his head to kiss her.

It was a gentle kiss, not meant to scare her or to force her into something she didn´t want. He cupped the back of her head with one hand the moment he realized that she would allow him even more and the soft touching of their lips changed into a deep French kiss.

When he finally drew back, he left her all shaky.

This time, she stared openly at him, experiencing an odd mixture of regret and relief about the fact that he had taken a step back and had brought at least some distance back between them.

„What the hell just happened ?" she whispered, still breathless.

„Need a slowmo ?" he inquired, his expression sober.

The blunt suggestion made her legs turn to jelly.

But the question seemed to have been of purely rhetorical nature anyway. He had already turned to grab his bag.

He tapped the tip of her nose with one finger on his way past her.

„Don´t stay up late", he advised her fatherly. „Or you´ll only be looking tired again tomorrow."

She watched him leave.

Suddenly on her own at the locker room, Jade slipped slowly down the wall he had pinned her against just half a minute before. She sat several minutes there on the floor, undiscovered and undisturbed, before she felt finally able to get up again and get her equipment.

* * *

_Please review._


	2. Nagging questions

„Enjoying the view ?" Shawn asked.

„Any reason why I shouldn´t ?" Mark asked back.

He grinned, obviously not ashamed of the fact that the friend had caught him observing Jade and Sheila discussing some schedule issue at the other end of the room. Sheila had sat down to the edge of the table while Jade had bent forward and put her palms down to the table´s surface, staring down at the timetable in front of them, completely unaware of the good look at her backside she was granting Mark that way.

„None I could think of as long as you´re staring at the right one of those two", Shawn replied with a shrug.

„Don´t worry", Mark mumbled.

Jade was in her usual working dress, a light company polo, the color indicating to which division of the crew she belonged, jeans and sneakers, the long dark hair in a braid. Mark realized that he had most likely never seen her wearing something else. But alright, she was not around for a fashion show. She had already been good at what she was doing when she had started to work for the WWE, but she had lacked self-confidence back then. Nowadays, boasters like Bo Cedric didn´t scare her anymore. But Mark had come to believe that there was still something else that was different about her, something that seemed to have escaped him during the years of his marriage. He couldn´t put a finger on what it exactly was, but somewhere down the road, plain Jane Jadice Cooper had obviously turned from a girl into a woman, certain things about her looks and regarding her ways becoming more distinct with the time.

„Did she lose weight?" Mark suddenly inquired, leaving even quick-witted Shawn perplexed for a moment.

„Sheila?"

„Jade, dipstick."

Shawn threw him an amused look.

„What kind of girlish question is that exactly?" he asked back, putting his hands to his sides.

He didn´t get an answer, but was not really surprised by that. Risking it and letting his gaze wander from his wife over to Jade, he finally nodded.

„Yeah, I guess so. Well, she´s been through some trouble with some ex-boyfriend recently. She moved only some weeks ago to get the guy finally out of her hair, I guess it´s got probably something to do with that. She and Sheila talked a lot at that time."

Shawn eyed up his colleague.

„So, why the hell would you notice that ?"

Mark sat back and crossed thick arms in front of his chest.

„I just liked her better when she really filled out these jeans", he muttered.

Shawn frowned. He was tempted to try and find out a little more about Mark´s unexpected interest in the physiotherapist, but knew him good enough to read the friend´s body language right. The damn bastard´s change in posture told him clearly that he was not up to make any further words about that.

„So how are things going with the new storyline ?" Shawn asked instead.

„Pretty good", Mark answered. „Glen and I are going to have a first encounter with the new Dark Daria tonight and then there´ll be this kind of tie-up at the beginning of next week, they haven´t come up with the details. Have you already seen her?"

Shawn nodded. Daria, one of the most popular wrestling diva´s around for the last years, had been subject to a complete revision of her character and looks. As a consequence, the former blond schoolgirl, who had gained a lot of muscle over the last year, had changed into kind of a Gothic style queen, now meant to temporarely pair up with the Brothers of Destruction and against her former boyfriend, model-boy Jase Richards and his partner.

„I´m looking forward to how people are going to react to that", Shawn mused. „When we talked the last time, she seemed eager enough to do this. Like if she actually wants people to hate her after playing the nice little girl for so long."

Mark only shrugged, but had come to the same conclusion.

At that moment, Chris entered the room, looking around for the Undertaker.

XXX

„Fuck!"

Mark swore, then gasped.

„Goddamnit, Chris!"

„I told you that it would probably hurt", the chief physio commented.

„You didn´t tell me that you´re going to break my arm!"

„If he had told you, you would only have threatened him to break his neck or something", Jade reasoned.

She reached for his arm but he retracted it, slowly moving it to get over the pain.

„Gimme a second, alright ?"

Chris padded the wrestler´s shoulder.

„Don´t worry. If this is not going to do the trick, nothing will."

„Yeah, thanks! Miserable torturer that you are", Mark rumbled.

„Alright, let´s do some stretching once again, then we´re done. The problem should be solved by tomorrow."

"You got to be damn kidding me", Mark growled.

Stepping behind Mark, Chris gestured to Jade. She put one foot up to the bench he was sitting on and reached for his arm to make it rest across her leg while Chris prepared to steady Mark. Chris was ready, but Jade gave a small sound of disapproval, softly patting Mark´s arm.

„Relax. This doesn´t work otherwise."

„If I relax, you´re gonna break down", he argued.

„Yeah, come on, did that ever happen before ?"

He frowned and did as he had been told, but only hesitantly. Letting the full weight of his arm rest on her leg didn´t seem wise.

The door opened and one of the runarounds poked her head in.

„Chris, Dave is asking for you", she told the chief physio with a nod to the other people present. „Mr. Cedric..."

„Alright, how urgent is it ?" Chris interrupted her.

The girl shifted her weight uncomfortably.

„Well, _Dave_ thinks that it´s not _that_ urgent..."

„But Cedric is raising hell, isn´t he ?" Chris guessed.

The girl nodded.

„Do you people manage here?" Chris addressed Jade and Mark.

„Sure", they both said at the same time, their simultaneous answer only causing Chris to grin.

XXX

Mark watched her silently while Jade worked once again on his right arm. She had told him to lie down after two failed attempts to do this with him sitting because he wouldn´t relax. He had not felt any better about putting the full weight of his arm to her shoulder instead of to her leg like before, possibly making her collapse that way. Jade had been working long enough with men of his caliber to know what she could do or not, but he hadn´t listened.

Jade worked as silently as he was watching her. The last few days had been kind of intriguing. After his unexpected approach, the moment she had managed to pull herself together, her mind had started to spin.

Jade had known Mark ever since she had started to work for the WWE and she definitely preferred him to many of his colleagues. But then again, they had always only been colleagues in the widest sense.

His unexpected approach had turned her whole world upside down. She had been hit on by some of the boys over the years, and to her amusement even by one of the lady wrestlers once, but Mark of all people had been the last she would have expected to take the offensive that way.

Jade had always liked him, she couldn´t deny that. She had always liked his role as the the Lord of Darkness, the unpredictable mysterious giant who rarely took sides, and who, if he did so, was often inclined to change his mind as fast as he had made it up before. Aware that the character of the Undertaker and the man behind that role were two different things, she nevertheless mused that he wouldn´t have been able to play his part that convincingly and for so long if he hadn´t liked the dark character he was portraying. Him giving the American bad ass later on was one her all-time favorites. There had been less mystery, but more muscle flexing, more big talk, more aggressive challenges. And there had simply been more fun because the role had allowed him to say all the things nobody else had ever been allowed to say. Where he had played the Lord of Darkness convincingly, he had played that role always with obvious delight.

Jade remembered that in the beginning, a lot of people had warned her about him being grumpy and moody. To her surprise, a lot of people still thought of him like that. But she mused that most of them were simply misinterpreting his stoic sarcasm. He actually seemed to have realized that, but did obviously not care much about it. He didn´t talk that much in general, but if he spoke his mind, his statements were sometimes that sardonic that it took people some time to realize the real meaning behind his words. Those who did were usually lost for words. Those who didn´t were left confused by the man´s irritating way. People close to him, like his colleague and friend Glen or longtime coworkers like Shawn, used to watch such scenes in silent delight.

As far as she was concerned, she had obviously never given him reason to become the target of one of these statements. And in contrast to a lot of the other athletes around, he was definitely not the guy to take his mood out on the people around him. He was neither the type to flirt with every female crossing his way nor to hit on one female colleague after another. And where others had made it kind of a habit, she had never seen or heard about him gotten caught in the middle of some kissing and cuddling during work. Alright, he had been married most of that time and the company followed a very strict policy regarding that matter. But then again, some people, especially the established ones, could surely afford it anyway.

Jade had realized that she actually had no idea if he was single or not. She knew that he and his wife had gotten divorced two years ago, but she had no idea about his recent relationship status.

Neither did she know if he had known that she wasn´t seeing someone or if he just hadn´t cared about it. If he had known that she was single, it raised the question where he had gotten this information from.

Knowing that Shawn and Mark were good friends nowadays, Jade could have asked Shawn´s wife Sheila about him. But Jade wouldn´t have been able to do so without Sheila getting suspicious, so it hadn´t been a real option.

The most unnerving question bothering her was the one regarding his possible intentions. It was also the question only one person could actually answer. And Jade, usually not that easily scared, found that she was not though enough to simply ask him.

She wondered if he had any idea how badly he had shaken her own little universe. Luckily, it seemed to have gone unnoticed by the rest of the world so far. Or, in other words, unnoticed by her closest friends.

She had met him right the next day during breakfast. They had met two times more that day, but had always been surrounded by a lot of other people. He had acted just as usual, but she had still found herself rethinking these encounters over and over again, trying to get a clue what he was up to - or if he was up to anything more at all. It had been the same the following day. But with every hour that had passed ever since without anything significant to happen, she had grown more and more accustomed to the thought that, as odd as it had been, this kiss had been a one-time thing.

Jade realized suddenly that he was observing her. To her embarrassment, she blushed.

„Would you stop ?" she asked, her usually steady voice sounding suddenly rather shaky to herself.

„Stop what ?" he asked bluntly.

He had put his free hand to the back of his head for a more comfortable position to look at her, now finally turning his head completely towards her.

She returned his gaze for a prolonged moment, then narrowed her grey eyes.

„Making me blush", she answered.

He considered her answer for a moment.

„I ain´t doin´ nothin´ ", he told her then with that drawl she admittedly liked, the beginning of a grin on his face.

Despite the fact that he was right about not really doing something with the exception of looking at her, she hated him for telling her so.

„You´re done ?" he asked when she kept silent, but still held his gaze. Her hands rested still on his arm.

To his amusement, her blush only deepened. She retracted her hands.

„What´s wrong with you?" he asked innocently, unable to withstand the temptation to tease her a little more.

He sat up. For some reason, even after working with so many athletes of quite impressive built, she couldn´t else but eye him up for a moment. She had treated him uncounted times for all kinds of stuff before. Still, looking at him right now had suddenly a different quality.

He slipped from the massage table and forced her to take a step back by doing so, only to reach for her to make her sit on the table he had just spent the last half an hour on. The fact that lifting her up there as if she was only a three-year-old made things only worse. The way she was now looking up to him made him almost regret his teasing. Well, almost.

Jade watched him, alert, obviously not daring to make the first move.

He held her gaze for another moment, then shook his head.

A minute later, Jade found herself pinned up against a wall once more.

It seemed that it didn´t cost him much of an effort to hold her there. The damn bastard even managed somehow to hold her there with one hand at the back of her head and the other one under her shirt. Admittedly, he hadn´t needed to ask her to fling her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist.

Nevertheless, the moment he bent forward to get into another round of kissing, she turned her head a little to keep him from doing so.

„Mark!" she said breathless.

„Wha´ ?" he inquired harshly, unwilling to be interrupted right at that moment.

„We have to stop !" she whispered.

Giving a short sound of disapproval, he kissed her again instead, taking his time.

It was her turn to give a soft sound of disapproval when he broke away from her this time.

„Why ?" he demanded to know, just having proven that her words obviously didn´t meet her wishes.

He bent forward again, but she held him back.

„If they catch us here like that, I´m in trouble."

He brought his hands back to her legs to keep her steady while he seemed to consider that. They both knew that she was right - and that she would be in a lot more trouble than he.

„Jade ?" T. J. asked from outside the room that moment, knocking at the same time at it. "I am looking for Taker, he´s with you ?"

They both cursed while he put her hurriedly back to her feet.

„Yeah", he growled, somewhat disgruntled.

"Get in", Jade added somewhat belatedly.

„Hey there!"

The moment the gofer poked his head in, they managed to make the scene look like the most innocent one possible. Jade, with her back turned to the man, hoped that he wouldn´t get a glimpse at her flushed face.

„Just wanted to let you know that Marcus made the appointment for the meeting with Daria and Kane for tomorrow ten a.m.", T.J. told him. „Can I tell him that´s okay ?"

„Sure, go ahead."

„Alright then! See ya!"

T. J. disappeared as quickly as he had appeared in the first place.

Jade took a deep breath the moment the door had closed behind him again.

„See what I am talking about ?" she asked. „You got to go."

She boded ill the moment she saw the grin on his face.

„Don´t think you´re getting away just like that", he told her, his grin broadening.


	3. Feeling awkward

Mark kept himself from throwing another look at his watch. Instead, he glanced up and down the street again, putting his hands into the pockets of his jacket. He realized belatedly that he had started immediatly to turn the keys inside there in his fingers. It made him want to shake his head at himself for being as nervous as a teenager at his first date.

The longer he had to wait, the more he lost heart.

Half an hour after they had been supposed to meet, he gave up. The fact that she hadn´t shown up left him puzzled and wondering why she had agreed to do so in the first place if she hadn´t wanted to. He got up from his place at the low wall in front of the restaurant and turned.

„Mark!"

He turned his head.

Jade hurried down the mall. He had never before seen her in something else than her work outfit and the sight of her managing to run in the high-heeled boots she was wearing without breaking her neck alone caused him to grin. On closer look, she filled out the jeans she was now wearing a bit better than the ones she had been wearing in the afternoon, and the purple tight-fitting shirt wore neither a WWE logo nor was it two sizes too large for her for a change. The different look left him amazed. When she finally reached him, her cheeks were flushed from running and she was badly out of breath while she tried in vain to rearrange the long and for once unrestrained dark hair.

„Sorry", she muttered, still panting. „I didn´t mean to make you wait. I didn´t made it back to the hotel in time."

„Calm down", he told her. „You´re here now."

„You _could_ have called me", he added then.

Still out of breath, she only managed to throw him an indignant look. Surprised by that and thinking about his words once again, he realized the problem.

„But you don´t happen to have my number, do you", he stated.

„Correct", she nodded, brushing another strand of hair behind her ear.

He only grinned weakly. They were obviously both kind of dilettantes around dating.

XXX

They made it through a delicious dinner at the small steakhouse, talking about this and that. Jade had managed to relax after a while after she had been that late, but she had still no idea about her date´s intentions. When the waitress served them dessert, she finally felt herself growing tense again.

„So, do you have any further plans for tonight?" he inquired finally.

She shook her head.

„No."

Holding his gaze, she sat back.

„What about you?" she asked.

Mark frowned.

„You know", he said, reaching into the pocket of his jacket. „I am not sure if this is the right way to handle this..."

Well, there was only one way to find out.

With an effort, he pulled the key out of his pocket and put it to the table between them.

Jade kept her eyes fixed on the small object for a moment. It was obviously the key to a hotel room, and from the tag that was attached to to, it belonged to one of the small number of rooms right above the restaurant. Far away from where they were supposed to spend the night and by that, far away from the rest of the people they were travelling with.

XXX

Mark closed the door to the hotel room behind them while she glanced around. The room was small, but looked more homely than most of the other hotel rooms she had seen over the years. There were some small decorative items around, and things looked like someone had actually taken the time to arrange them.

„Let me make this clear", he stated quietly behind her. "I don´t want you to feel awkward or..."

Jade turned to face him, a smile on her face. She had still no idea if this was meant to be a one night stand or more. Considering their jobs and their working relationship, the company´s policy regarding flings between their employees and the fact that they both spent more time on the road than at home, booking a room for them at a place where they could be sure not to run into any of their colleagues seemed not that awkward to her. And if anything had made her feel awkward so far, it had surely not been this last well-planned surprise.

Listening in on herself for a second, she felt only anticipation about what was probably to come.

„Truthfully?" she said after a moment.

He nodded.

„This evening has been the least awkward one of the last three weeks", she stated quietly.

„I got the impression that they know you around here", she added carefully.

He nodded.

„I happen to know the owner and his wife."

It was exactly why he had chosen the place. Roger and Christin were longtime friends, and they were discreet. It had made the time and place perfect.

„They are not going to tell anyone that we´ve been here", he added. Realizing how his last words must have sounded to her, he bit his lip.

"You know, it´s not like if I do this all the time, I mean..."

Her smile broadened. So he had been aware that she had been risking way more than him by allowing all the kissing and cuddling behind the scenes, in dark corners and at empty dressing rooms. Still, he now obviously felt the urge to emphasize that he had not made it a habit to take female colleagues over here for whatever he was up to every time he was in town.

"I think I got it", she managed to whisper. Suddenly feeling a little weak, she let herself sink down to the large bed.

Throwing both their jackets to a nearby armchair, he followed her there to sit down right next to her. Eventually, he bent forward to kiss her.

He was obviously not in a hurry, taking his time to study her, brush a strand of slightly curled dark hair out of her face and follow the outline of her jaw with his lips. She had closed her eyes, enjoying his caresses. After some minutes, he made her carefully lie back.

The room lay intriguingly silent while they kissed and touched, trying to get more acquainted with each other. Ever since this had started, they had always had to be careful not to be caught. Now, for the first time, they didn´t need to be on guard.

At some point, he pulled her back into a sitting position to take her shirt off. She let it happen, another hot shiver rolling down her spine the moment he followed the line of her neck down to her cleavage with his mouth.

Having no idea where the courage to do so had suddenly come from, she reached for him to make him take off his shirt as well.

Some moments later, with his lips softly exploring her upper body, she lay still for a moment, watching him.

Jade knew this gorgeous body. She was used to trail the muscles along the heavily tattooed arms with her fingertips where the ink made it impossible to see them. She knew every muscle along his shoulders and back that had ever given him trouble, knew every almost invisible scar on his comparatively light skin. Still, touching him this time was a completely different thing.

Most of the stars in his business were more than heavily muscled, some of them up to a point where they seemed barely able to walk. Mark was none of the most extreme specimens, but definitely one of the tallest, with only Glen sporting the same combination of height, massive built and brawn. The sight of his naked chest and stomach had been impressive before, even for somebody as used to it as she was. But she realized nervously that looking at him as a lover instead of a patient or colleague changed things completely.

Their kissing became slowly more intense while he undressed her piece by piece. He could tell that she was quite aroused, but nevertheless tense. Well, some tension was not necessarily a bad thing, but he didn´t want that tension to turn into discomfort.

He watched her hesitate for a moment, standing right next to the bed after she had managed to peel off his jeans from him. Night was falling outside and her silhouette started to blur in the twilight.

He got up to his elbows and offered her a hand to pull her back close to him. She accepted his hand and let him do so, her own momentum making her land a little harder than expected and forcing her to put her palms down to his chest to avoid toppling over. With only her bra and panties left on her, he felt her skin burn against his.

The moment he reached for the light switch of the small lamp at the nightstand, she kept him from doing so.

„Please", she whispered, suddenly sounding kind of alarmed. „Don´t."

Her reaction surprised him, but he didn´t argue. They were up to some pretty intimate things and he wouldn´t blame her for feeling a little shy, even if she denied him that way a closer look at her for the time being.

XXX

The more serious things became, the more frantically she clung to him. Her arousal seemed to have grown steadily with his own. Neither of them had spoken a word for a while and there was obviously no need for it, her body signalizing obviously enough to him that she was willing to go through with this.

The moment he turned her to her back, bending over her, his erection pressing hard against her lower body, she suddenly brought one knee up as if to shut him out, carefully not to hit him, but nevertheless keeping him from what he had been up to.

„Please", she whispered in the darkness. Mark failed to suppress a groan of want at the unexpected delay. Having to fight hard for control for a moment, he softly caressed her cheek.

„You´re alright?" he asked, his voice hoarse.

She nodded, something he didn´t see, but felt.

„Just..."

He felt her body tense beneath him while she was feverishly looking for the right words.

„It´s been a while", she whispered finally, the words barely audible.

His hand found hers above her head and he squeezed the delicate fingers softly. She was not tiny, but still small. Not exactly frail, but her body still fragile enough compared to his. He had probably three times her weight. He hadn´t blamed her for being a little shy before. He would neither blame her for asking him to be careful with her now.

He buried his face in her hair for a moment, trying to brace himself for the effort it would take to restrain himself.

„You set the pace then", he whispered.

XXX

She was tight.

Blazing fire spread through his body the moment he filled her.

Damn tight.

He had once again to fight hard for control. The promise he had so recklessly made only seconds before felt suddenly impossible to keep.

Jade in his arms made not the slightest sound, shivering slightly. Her whole body seemed to vibrate with want, still, she didn´t move. She held her breath, the sensation stunning. The moment he failed to suppress a groan of lust any longer, she finally dared to take a deep breath.

Then, finally, she allowed him to move deeper.

Focusing on the woman in his arms, the small form he couldn´t see but only feel in the dark, left him confused. She clung to him, her breathing getting faster, her hips rocking against him, but still, she kept silent. No word, no moan, no sound of any kind escaped her, leaving him literally in the dark regarding the degree of her own pleasure.

It was an impossible thing to try and keep his want at bay. At some point, he simply failed. An unintentionally hard thrust made her jerk and dig her nails painfully into his skin.

Aware of his momentarily loss of control, he feared that he had overdone.

He froze, the effort forcing a desperate grunt out of him.

„Mark."

Again, her voice had been nothing more than a whisper. Hoarse, but full of desire.

There was something about the way she had spoken his name that threatened to wreck him. He knew that he wouldn´t be able to hold back for much longer.

„What?" he still somehow managed to whisper.

„Do me", she whispered in the darkness.

XXX

Jade breathed heavily in his embrace. She hadn´t needed to ask him twice for that. And if she would ever have wondered how it felt to have a threehundred pound body collapse right on top of her own, well, she had just gotten an idea. She was completely done for. The wild thing about that was that even with that last brandnew experience, a teasing voice in her head was already whispering to her to imagine what things would have felt like if he hadn´t been that particularly careful with her.

Closing her eyes, Jade felt that the thought was as frightening as delicious. She had just risked a long-term employment, an equally long working relationship and friendship, all for what he had probably planned to be a one night stand right from the beginning.

To her mild surprise, she found that she didn´t care.

Slowly overcoming the effects of his climax, Mark ran his fingers through her hair.

This had been good.

At least to begin with.

It hadn´t escaped him that he had´t managed to sent her over the edge as well. Listening to her breathing, he mused that there was no reason to give up on that that early in the evening.


	4. Back at home

Three days later, Mark entered the gym at his hometown, taking off his sunglasses the moment he stepped through the door, only to raise his eyebrows recognizing Jade behind the counter at the reception. She looked equally surprised to see him.

He had known that they lived in the same town but he hadn´t expected to meet her here of all places. On the other hand, with the training facility belonging to WWE, it was definitely not a coincidence.

„Hey", she managed to mumble the moment he was close enough.

„Hey."

He eyed her silently up for a moment. They hadn´t talked to each other since Thursday night.

„What the hell are _you_ doing here ?" he asked finally.

When he had woken on Friday morning, she had been gone. They had seen each other later that day, but only walking past each other at the arena. Jade had been working with the WWE divas all night. There hadn´t even been a chance to exchange only a few words in private and she had already been leaving for home the same night with the rest of the staff.

„I filled in for Andrea", she answered, referring to one of the girls who usually did the receptionist´s job. „She had to take her little son to the hospital this afternoon ´cause he´s broken his arm."

They looked for a prolongued moment at each other.

„Would you hand me the key to my locker then ?" he finally asked, breaking the spell.

She nodded, suddenly feeling queasy at this trivial request.

She found the right key and put it down to the counter in front of her in silence.

Mark reached into his pocket, then put something down to the counter right next to the key, his hand covering hers in the process.

„You know, I would have called you", he told her quietly.

Jade bit her lip, the light touch of his hand on hers enough to fluster her again.

He shoved her cell phone towards her.

„But you forgot your cell phone", he added.

Jade felt her knees becoming weak. So she had not lost the damn thing, she had simply forgot it that morning when she had left in a hurry after their shared night. She had finally stored his phone number earlier that night during dinner, but that had not been of any use with the cell lost. He had stored hers by then as well, but that had not helped either. She had not been able to ask Sheila for his number without making her friend becoming suspicious while he had not been able to ask Shawn for any more details about her for the same reasons.

He sniffed, then put his left hand down to the counter as well.

„You know", he told her in a conversational tone, glancing around to determine who else was there that late on a Sunday evening,"if it wouldn´t be kind of an indiscretion, I would drag you right across this counter and do you right here."

Jade gave a short gasp. She felt her cheeks starting to burn.

It would probably not have been Mark to really do it. But it was onehundred percent Mark to tell her.

„You have an interesting idea of flattery", she finally managed to answer.

„Well, enjoy it", he told her with a small grin. „It´s probably all you´ll ever get. Mind if I ask when your shift ends ?"

„At ten", she stated lowly.

Glancing at the clock, he shrugged.

„Mind if I ask if you got any further plans ?"

Jade slowly shook her head, wondering privately what kind of plans he thought she might have after working 24/7 besides going to bed.

XXX

„You´re a damn pussy! Get up!"

The older one of the two men in the ring knocked the legs out of under the younger one the moment he tried to get up to do as told.

„Dead loss!"

A hard kick followed those words.

Jade over at the other end of the room only glanced at the two men, then returned her eyes to the book in front of her.

„Damn, Alex, it´s not my fault!" the younger one exclaimed.

„That´s a matter of opinion !" the older one spat, attacking the younger one again. With his younger brother expecting the attack and trying to evade, they both went down again.

Jade sighed. She knew these two guys. The procedure had been the same over and over again. Alex was the better wrestler. Ryan was the better ladies´s man. And every time Alex found out that his younger brother had pinched his girlfriend again, he would beat the younger one up, or at least try to do so. With the gym almost empty due to the late hour, the time was perfect. Well, not that the drama hadn´t been going on the whole night already.

„Sucker!" Alex barked.

„Alright, guys, take a break!" someone suddenly demanded. The request had been made quietly. Still, the deep rumbling voice demanded respect. Or, in the case of the two wannabe machos, rather obedience. Jade had almost forgotten about the single additional regular around at that point.

„I am not done with this guy!" Alex freaked out. „Not as long as he..."

„Cool down, Alex", the deep voice said now. „I heard it all. Jade heard it all. You had your revenge, alright ?"

Alex glared at the man interrupting his retaliation campaign, that alone a bad idea, but he finally followed the request. Despite being usually tight-lipped, Calaway was an authority inside these walls like he was backstage wherever the WWE universe travelled, even if no official one.

The younger one of the Erics brothers had already taken the chance and slipped out of the ring, heading for the showers. The older one growled and cursed under his breath, but finally followed his brother.

XXX

Half an hour later, the brothers barely nodded to Jade on their way out. Watching them leave, their quarrel obviously continuing the moment the door of the gym had closed behind them, Jade closed the book in front of her. She had not managed to read more than four or five pages through all the evening, and she could not remember the smallest bit of it, her mind too occupied with other things.

Her attention shifted from the brothers outside to the only other person left by now. As usual, she had to look up to him. He handed her the key to his locker and she accepted it from him to put it away.

„You shouldn´t have waited for them to leave, you know", she said.

He didn´t comment. Mark knew that Dan, the trainer in charge here, always had an eye on the guys to avoid that they would bother the girls around too much and some of those boys never realized when they crossed the line. He knew that the last working trip had been long and straining and he had had no intentions on letting these guys bother her unnecessarily.

They left the place together in companionable silence. He waited patiently for her while she fumbled with the keys. The moment she was done, he stepped in on her to kiss her, stopping himself at the last moment, his face only an inch from hers.

So far, there had been no chance for him to find out if this was alright for her.

But Jade had been prepared this time. She got up to her tiptoes and, flinging her arms around his neck, kissed him herself.

Mark dropped his sportsbag to lift her up. His response to her soft kiss turned out rather vehement.

„Hey, do we really have to do this right here ?" she asked a little breathless when she was finally given the chance to speak. He was still holding her and she enjoyed being finally that close to him again.

A look at the grin on his face, a sight she still wasn´t really used to, made her suspicious about his answer to come.

„My car is right over there", he told her promptly.

„Oh, come on!" she muttered, not really as disgruntled by his answer as she obviously wanted him make to believe.

Then she tugged softly at his shirt.

„Set me down, alright ?"

He followed the request, but didn´t let her slip completely out of his arms.

„You know, don´t get me wrong", she whispered. „But I´ve been here since noon and..."

„Since _noon_ ?" he interrupted. „Had you anything to eat ?"

„Not much", she admitted. „And I need a shower and some fresh clothes."

Mark frowned. He could tell that she was tired and that there was again way too much tension in her muscles. On one hand, there could be no doubt that she needed some sleep. On the other hand, he simply didn´t want to let her go again.

„Have you any plans for tomorrow ?" he asked.

She shook her head.

„You´d like to..."

Searching for the right words, he glanced around for a moment. Suddenly, he noticed something.

„Say, where´s your car ?" he inquired, realizing that his own was the only one left in the parking lot by now.

„It didn´t start up again this morning", she said.

„How did you get here ?"

„I took the subway."

„And how are you supposed to get home now ?" he asked, suddenly sounding slightly annoyed.

„Look, when I came here this morning, I had no idea that I would fill in for Andrea. I had just poked my head in to drop something off for Allison and then Andrea got this call..."

He raised one hand to interrupt her.

„Alright, alright, I´ll take you home."

„It´s really..."

„Yeah, stop it - I´ll take you!"

As if he would have left her to walk over to the subway station all alone and let her drive home all on her own that late in the evening.

XXX

„This is where you live ?" he asked, sounding somewhat surprised at the sight of the old factory building she had directed him to. The whole street lay deserted.

„It looks much better inside", she assured him. „It belongs to a friend of mine and he lived here himself before, made quite something out of it. I didn´t need something big and the rent he´s asking for is dirt-cheap, so..."

„This is a godforsaken place for a girl like you to live at, you know."

„It´s not godforsaken and I am no little girl! There´s a garage around back, they´re doing a lot of custom stuff and work usually all night and I usually use the entrance door there. It´s not that secluded! If you could just take me there... ?"

He did as told, then stopped. There was actually light at the rooms of the garage. Still, the doubtful look with which he glanced around didn´t escape her.

„Look, I´ve never been frightened to come home in the middle of the night", she told him defensively. „Now please don´t make me getting so, okay ?!"

She grabbed her purse, then looked at him.

„So...do you wanna come in ?"

He eyed her up for a moment, then shook his head, softly caressing her cheek.

„It´s alright, girl. Go get some sleep and let´s meet tomorrow. It was a long week. I could pick you up and have a look at your car."

She leaned into his touch, closing her eyes for a moment.

„When ?" she asked.

„Just get some sleep and call me in the morning, alright ? I usually don´t sleep very long."

They shared another kiss, both not really willing to say goodbye.

„Go", he told her eventually. „As long as I´ll let you."

„See you tomorrow", she mumbled, dead-tired but still hesitating to get out of the car.

„Thanks again for taking me home!" she added.

He only shrugged it off.

Waiting for her to make it inside the building, he reached for his cell phone. Doing so, his eyes fell on her jacket on the backseat.

„Oh girl", he muttered. He snapped the cell phone shut, grabbed the jacket and followed her.

* * *

_Alright, what do I have to do to make you write a review ?! ;)_


	5. Taking chances

_for a better understanding, in this world, __Mark hasn´t been married to Sara (but to Melissa)_

* * *

The way to her apartment was easy to find. The heavy metallic entrance door hadn´t fallen completely shut yet. Entering the hall, there was only one door leading to the garage on the left, and a metal stairway leading up to the next floor.

He made it up the stairs. The corridor up there was only dimly lit, after all by an obviously motion activated light. There was only one door at the end of the corridor, and for some reason he couldn´t think of, she hadn´t closed it behind her so far.

„Jade ?" he called, not intending to frighten her even if she had surely heard him come up the stairs.

There was no answer.

„Jade ?!" he repeated, a bit louder this time, while covering the few steps over to the door quickly.

Drawing closer, he realized that the lock had been broken.

He shoved the heavy door open with one hand.

It turned out that the apartment consisted mainly of one large room. There was a tv set and a couch right across the door, a small kitchenette was smartly fitted into a niche to the right. The sleeping area on the left had been separated by the rest of the room simply by smartly positioning a large shelf, the numerous compartments filled with books, cd´s and decoration.

She had been right, the guy the place belonged to had made quite something out of the space and she had obviously done her own to make it look more than comfortable, but right now, it was obvious that something was very wrong. There was no real mess, and not much destruction, but someone had searched several drawers, emptying their contents to the floor. The mattress of the bed had been overthrown, the blankets and sheets scattered all around. Two chairs had been thrown over, some documents swiped from a desk as if someone had been really angry.

Mark tensed the moment his eyes fell on the large picture above the tv set, obviously an enlarged photo showing a group of girls in going-out dresses at what looked like some kind of final party. Someone had smeared the word ´whore` all over it and used a knife to rip through the fabric the picture had been printed on. It made it clear that this had not been a simple burglary.

His eyes fell on Jade.

She had sat down on the edge of the wooden bed frame. Feeling his eyes on her, she looked over to him, noticed the jacket he was still holding.

„What the hell happened here ?"

„Looks like I had a visitor while I was at work", she muttered tiredly.

„Are you sure we´re alone here ?" he inquired, surprised by her resigned reaction, his eyes wandering over to the closed door on the left.

She nodded tiredly.

Boding ill, he marched over there and, without asking, opened it.

It lead to a small bathroom. A small pile of toilet articles filled the lavatory, the perfume bottles broken, all the make-up ruined. The mirror there had been smeared with more profanities.

„You know who´s responsible for that ?" he inquired.

„My ex-boyfriend", she replied tiredly.

„Your ex-boyfriend ?"

She nodded.

He tilted his head, glancing over her scattered belongings once more.

„You´re not going to call the police ?"

„I don´t know where he lives", she answered. "Last time we talked, he hadn´t found a permanent place to stay."

She rubbed the back of her hand across her face.

„Actually, I haven´t seen him in a while", she added.

Mark suddenly realized how several parts of a conversation between Sheila and Lita he had barely paid attention backstage to the day before suddenly fitted together.

„That´s the reason you moved ?"

She didn´t answer, but the desperation on her features was answer enough for him. The guy had found her nevertheless.

„Congratulations", Mark told her. „You just won a night at Hell´s Gate."

She looked up to him, looking devastated by now.

„I don´t think that´s a good idea", she mumbled.

„It is a great idea", he contradicted calmly. Realizing that she was by now trying hard to hold back the rising tears, he pulled her back to her feet.

"Now come on", he mumbled, hugging her softly.

„We´ll take care of this mess tomorrow, alright ?"

„Mark, it´s not a big deal..."

„Not a big deal ?"

He loosened his embrace to point at the mess around them.

„That guy breaks into here and ruins your new place and that´s no big thing ? You know, I am not gonna let you spend the night here with the lock broken and this punk probably still around."

Jade sighed.

„See, I guess he found what he´s been looking for. He´s taken the cash and he´s no violent guy, so..."

Mark frowned.

„Not violent, huh ?" he asked, nodding to the slashed picture.

„He may be an asshole, but he would never hurt me", Jade reasoned.

„Yeah, right. Now pack some stuff. I need some sleep and you could use some as well."

„Mark, look, I appreciate..."

„You heard me!" he interrupted her impatiently. „Now get goin´ !"

She knew the look he was giving her. She had seen him giving it a lot of people before. But through all the years, he had never used it on her. Still, it said unmistakably that the matter was not up for negotiation.

XXX

„So, why is he doing this ?"

Jade made a small tired sound of frustration. She was not in the mood to talk about that, but then again, after he had taken her home and had now offered her a safe place to stay for the night, she found that he deserved to have his question answered. They had stopped underway to get some burgers for her. He had asked her twice if she was sure about her rather big order, only to witness her wolfing it down within minutes.

„Gavin and I have been together for a very long time. Kind of a sandbox love."

He waited patiently for her to go on.

„He had been a trained machine fitter, but felt that he could make a more promising career. He started to study the year I finished my training as a physiotherapist. He worked hard, things went well, he graduated as one of the best of his year, got a good job. He wanted me to stop working then, to stay at home and raise the children, something like that. I had just started to work with Chris back then. It was a great chance for me, but Gavin didn´t like the idea of me working with all those ´braindead musclemen`."

„But you didn´t quit."

„No, God forbid! I wasn´t ready for children back then and I would surely not have quitted without even being pregnant. And I appreciated the chance I had been given. Chris already had quite a reputation back then. And it was a good thing that I didn´t stop working ´cause Gavin lost his new job only some weeks after I had gotten mine. So I brought the money home while he was looking for a new employment. He became soon quite frustrated. Things had always went really well for him before. And then, there was the depression. He just didn´t find another job. His business sector was hopelessly down. He tried some other stuff, but nothing really worked. Things would have been complicated enough, but we had already had a lot of problems with each other before. Things got only worse. And at some point, they went just wrong."

„Wrong in which way ?" he asked after a short while to her surprise.

She chuckled tiredly.

„As I said, it was kind of a sandbox love. We still lived together, but we had simply stopped being a couple. We were like longtime friends who had been through a lot together, including first sex...but that was all."

„But that is not why he´s calling you a whore, aint´t it ?"

„You´re damn talkative tonight!" she suddenly complained.

If he was offended, he didn´t show it. Neither that nor any other visible reaction.

„I broke up with him, wanted to get my own apartment, but he asked me to keep the old apartment at least until he had found a new job. He never wanted to accept that we were done. And at some point, I met somebody else."

„A somebody else with a job ?"

She gave a frustrated sigh.

„A somebody else to have sex with."

This time, he chuckled at her straight answer.

Jade sighed.

„But he had a job as well, for that matter. Gavin got never over it. He accused me of having cheated on him. It became impossible to share an apartment with him any longer, so I moved."

„So that explains why he´s calling you a whore ? Alright, I still think that´s a matter of opinion..."

„Thanks for defending my honour !" she interrupted him indignantly, causing a chuckle on his side.

„It also doesn´t explain why he would break into your apartment and steal your money", Mark went on. "How long has it been since you dumped him ?"

„Six years. And I didn´t ´dump` him!"

They had to stop at a redlight and he took the chance to look at her.

„_Six_ years ? Are you telling me that he has been harassing you for six years ?"

„No. Gavin´s been working in New York for a while. He returned a while ago, after another failure."

„And the somebody else to have sex with didn´t interfere ?"

„The somebody else had meanwhile found himself someone who didn´t travel so much."

He frowned at her words. He knew that particular problem.

„Well, I´d really like to meet that guy someday", he commented. „I guess I heard Sheila talking about you moving more than once over the last year...´ that because of that idiot ?"

To her relief, he pulled into a driveway at that moment.

„Partly", she only muttered, being stuck for a real answer.

XXX

„So, that´s the lair ?" she asked.

He grinned, dropping his bag right behind the door.

„That´s the lair."

„The famous Hell´s Gate", Jade muttered, following him in.

It was kind of common knowledge that he had moved after his divorce. The rest of the guys he was friends with, most of them married or in a longtime relationship themselves, had had their fun of making up a reputation for the Undertaker´s bachelor´s den, spreading the wildest details about the place no woman had ever set foot in. Despite the fact that most of it had obviously been completely fabricated, the name had somehow stuck to it.

The place didn´t look much like what the name promised to Jade, but she had to admit it - it was obvious that there had been no woman with any say around when the place had been furnished. It was a bachelor´s den, and one that had been adapted to his owner´s needs with delight, his personality undeniably all over the place.

Entering the huge living room, she smiled. The place looked more or less tidy, but the area around the large TV set and the three piece suite was a mess.

„Looks like someone had a party last night", she commented, pointing at the empty beer bottles and pizza boxes.

„I had some friends over to watch the boxing match last night", he mumbled. „And it was not exactly a party."

XXX

It was at least an hour after they had said good-night when she appeared in the living room´s door. Her hair was still damp and the strands fell for once loose over her shoulders.

„Can´t you sleep ?" he asked, craning his neck. He had changed into loose sweatpants by now and had found one of his alltime favorite old action movies to watch. He had been tired when they had left her place and it hadn´t been a lie when he had told her that he needed some sleep. But then, for some reason, after she had retired to the guestroom and he had found his way to his own bedroom, sleep had refused to come.

„You neither ?" she asked back.

He held one hand out to her and she joined him on the sofa.

„You´re alright ?"

She nodded.

„Sure."

She actually didn´t look like it but he let it slip.

„Why you´re down here ?" she asked. „You have no TV in your bedroom "

„Matter of fact, no", he answered to her surprise.

„No ? You own the greatest bachelor´s den of the whole WWE and you have no TV set in your bedroom ?"

„You know, my ex-wife always insisted on having one there, but frankly speaking, I got better things to do in my damn bedroom than watching TV and I´ll be damned if I ever get one again, so no - no TV there!"

Jade bit her lip at that unexpected piece of information.

„Well, that´s as good a reason as any, isn´t it ?" she only muttered.

„Want something to drink ?" he asked, still sounding slightly disgruntled.

„Honestly ?"

He raised an eyebrow.

She pointed at the bottle in his hand.

„I could do with one of these", she told him.

He grinned. He had actually never seen her drink anything else than water or maybe a soda here and there, but she had usually been working then.

A peculiar expression on his face, he bent forward, grabbed a bottle out of a half emptied sixpack and opened it for her, grabbing his own again afterwards.

„You´re giving me _warm_ beer ?" she asked, throwing him an indignant look.

„Dammit, this was the last cold one", he told her, snatching the bottle out of her hand to replace it with his own.

She laughed out, taking a good swig, then took the fresh but warm bottle out of his hand and handed him his original one back. She bent forward to pick the DVD case from the table, glancing shortly at the remains of the last night which still rested on the table in the process.

„I would have cleaned up a little if I had known that I would have a lady visitor tonight", he commented drily.

She turned the case in her hands to throw a look at text on the backside of the cover, the beginning of a smile on her face.

„Yeah, but you have been busy keeping the Erics brothers out of my hair all night, haven´t you ?" she commented lightly.

„Next time I´ll leave you to them", he told her with a shrug, allowing her to snatch the beer out of his hand again.

After taking another swig and returning the bottle to him, she let her head rest against the backrest of the sofa and mustered him.

„You´re a bastard, you know that ?" she suddenly told him.

The heartily made statement took him admittedly by surprise.

„When exactly did we make it that far in our relationship ?" he inquired.

„You´ve been playing this game with me for weeks now", she accused him lowly. „Then you take me here...and send me to the guestroom for the night ?"

He tilted his head.

„Some freak broke into your apartment", he snapped. „I am not going to take advantage of that!"

„You´re not?" she asked, sounding slightly disappointed.

„And I´m not playing games with you", he defended himself. "If I remember things right, _you_ ran from _me_ Friday mornin´!"

„I didn´t run!" she contradicted. " I had to work!"

„You could still have said goodbye."

„I thought that we´d see each other anyway later on", she reasoned.

„Yeah, come on! You knew that we would most likely not have a chance to talk to each other in private then."

She straightened up.

„Well, dang it, Mark, I wasn´t up to hear ´So that was it!` from you Friday mornin´, alright ?"

For a short moment, they only looked at each other.

„Why the hell should I have told you so ?" he asked then, perplexed.

„Well, you could only have been looking for a one time thing!"

„Listen, little lady, if I would have been looking for a one time thing, I would have found us a nice lonely locker room, gotten it over with and end of story!"

„Well, sorry mister, but you have not been very clear about your intentions!"

„If you would have stayed on Friday morning, I would have been damn clear about my intentions!"

She sat back, putting her arms around her, trying to calm down again.

„Wow, now we´re already shouting at each other ?" she asked.

„If I had shouted at you, you´d already be weeping into your pillows", he rumbled.

„Oh, dead man bragging!" she retorted, trying to grab his beer.

„Hands off!" he said, tightening the grip around the bottle and softly slapping her hand with his free one. „And you better stick with water. Alcohol makes you obviously getting all cheeky. And to get this straight, I have not been looking for a one time thing."

With that statement done, he handed her the bottle. She accepted it and took another swig. She felt like she really needed it by now.

„What have _you _been looking for ?" he asked bluntly.

Jade gulped.

„Not for a one time thing", she answered quietly.

He suddenly laughed out at the sheepish expression on her face.

„What´s so damn funny ?" she asked defiantly.

„You haven´t been sure about my intentions, but you still went through a lot of trouble to show up on Thursday", he told her. „And you´ve taken an awful risk only to get me to bed."

She bent forward and nudged him into the chest, leaving him for once quite surprised.

„Don´t be so damn smug about it!" she told him. „Your ego is really big enough already!"

He closed one hand around her wrist and pulled. She toppled over only to land straight in his arms, hitting the bottle in the process and spilling beer over the both of them.

„Oh, look what you´re doing!" he complained.

„Keep blaming me!" she shot back. „I can take it!"

He put the bottle away, then returned his gaze to her.

„So, what do you say ?" he asked, becoming serious. „As we are both kind of clear about our respective intentions now...shall we give this a try ?"

Licking her lips for a moment, she finally nodded.

„I know that this is risky for you", he added after a moment.

She shrugged, then lifted her chin to lock eyes with set expression on her face making her look simply adorable.

„I´ll take my chances", she told him.

Mark nodded. Then he moved.

"Now that we´ve settled this...", he muttered.

„What you´re doing ?" she asked, grabbing hold of his shirt the moment he lifted her up and got up himself.

„Taking you to bed, silly."

* * *

_Someone write me a damn review ;)_


	6. At Hell s Gate

The next morning, it was Jade´s turn to wake up and find herself alone. Sitting up in the middle of the kingsize bed, she still couldn´t quite believe that this was happening.

Still tired and yawning, she made it out of the bed and over to the bathroom. Washing her hands a minute later, she had to grin. The mirror over the lavatory had definitely been installed considering his body height. As a result, she was simply not even tall enough to glimpse at it.

The house lay deserted but the door leading from the kitchen out to the garden stood open. Wandering out there, she arrived just at the right time to watch him put his hands down to the pool´s edge to pull himself up there, water trickling down his back and chest. The sight made up for the morning chill that had made her shiver the moment her bare feet had touched the cold ground outside.

She made her way across the patio, picking up the towel he had thrown over the backrest of a chair there on her way.

Watching her making his way over to him left him amazed, even if he didn´t show it. She was the first woman he had ever brought here and the first one to walk around his garden at this time of the day, and admittedly the first he had ever thought of as that adorable even bleary-eyed and in one of his and for that completely oversized t-shirt.

She handed him the towel.

„Good morning", she said quietly.

„Mornin´", he mumbled, leaning in on her for a kiss.

„You´re running from me this time ?" she asked, watching him drying himself.

She had to wait until right after another kiss for his answer.

„Didn´t want to wake you", he muttered belatedly. „And I was growin´ restless."

„You´re an early riser ?"

He simply skipped an answer, busy studying her. He took his time to do so. She held the intense gaze out of green eyes, nevertheless intrigued. He had played a literally non-speaking character for years before the Undertaker had found his voice a while ago and Jade had witnessed uncounted times how a single glare out of these eyes, usually at a potential victim, had made the audience freak out. Even now, in private and with him doing everything else but glaring at her, she found that it was almost impossible to stand up to it.

He reached for her, pulled her slowly closer for another kiss, his skin still cold from the swim. This time, she opened her lips, silently inviting him to french her.

The urge to lay her which he had restrained so carefully when he had taken her to bed last night was instantly back and almost unbearable by now.

He kept her from withdrawing by cupping the back of her head with one large hand. He would go to hell - or in his case rather to heaven - before he would allow her to run from him again. But this time, she didn´t seem to plan on that anyway. She didn´t struggle when he lifted her up the same way he had done the night before to take her back to bed.

XXX

Thursday night had been good. Good to get to know each other. Good for a first go. But still full of restraint and caution. She had been nervous, had actually asked him to be careful. But when he had lost control for only one short moment, she had answered to that in a way that had asked for more. They had done it again, later that night, still taking things easy. It had been the same with her mysterious silence again. But the moment she had realized that he was close to coming, she had been very determined to made him getting there.

Waking up alone the next morning, the whole thing had left him confused.

Right now, remembering her answering to his own want made him only grow harder. Feeling his body getting ready for some more of that, he let his free hand slip down her arm and between her thighs.

Breaking their kiss, Jade arched her back and burried her face at his chest the moment he concentrated his attention to the most intimate region of her body. If there had been any doubts before, he would by now have known for sure how damn ready for him she was. She gasped under his touch, her nails digging softly into his skin, but she still maintained that mysterious silence.

He had to close his eyes for a second to compose himself. He would be damned if he was not able to make the girl overcome her shyness permanently.

Biting her lip, she reached for his hand to pull it away from her, only to press her hips harder against him, begging him silently to do her. He had been planning to prolong the sweet torture a little, but she had her own silent ways to make him fail. He had caught her hand and had defeated that attempt of hers to get what she wanted, but she kissed him hard instead, her tongue piercing clicking against his teeth the moment he draw back. Not willing to let him do so, she softly bit his lower lip.

It only took so much to make him lose his poise.

XXX

They spent another hour in bed, quietly enjoying each other´s company. The morning passed quickly, under the peculiar spell such first days were used to be subject to. Later on, with their rumbling stomachs driving them finally out of bed, she remembered reluctantly about the mess over at her own place.

„You know, I don´t want to interfere in your affairs, but I still think you should call the police", Mark told her. He had already gotten dressed while she had been taking a shower.

Jade, returning from the bathroom, sighed heavily.

„I know", she muttered.

He caught her in his arms on her way past him. Jade didn´t struggle, leaning back against him for a moment with her back against his chest. She felt tiny in his arms, but no afraid. Body control was everything in his business and he knew how to handle his own strength. Thinking about it, this fact was not that new to her. He had only just proven it in a completely different way to her.

„We´ll never make it over to my apartment if you don´t let me go", she whispered after a minute.

He finally released her with a low growl of disapproval. Something caught his eye.

„What about your tattoo ?" he asked.

The tattoo was located at the small of her back, on the right side of her spine. He mused that if she would ever get it finished, he would be able to cover it with one of his hands. Unfinished as it was, it showed a female demon, turning her back on the beholder and being right in the middle of folding delicate demon wings. He could tell that whoever had created the tattoo had done a great job, even if in its recent state, it lacked details and color.

Jade froze, grabbing the towel she was wrapped in a little tighter, covering the lady demon that way.

„What about it ?" she asked without looking at him.

„You´re gonna have it finished someday ?"

Rummaging frantically through her bag, she took her time to answer.

„I don´t know."

„Don´t like it ?"

Jade felt suddenly quite uncomfortable. She had all the fresh clothes she would need right at hand by now, but she couldn´t bring herself to drop the towel. She realized at the same time how ridiculous it would look if she marched over to the bathroom again to get dressed after the intimacies they had just shared. The strain and the emotional turmoil of the last few days combined were finally taking their toll and she suddenly feared to simply break into tears any second.

Then, just at the right time, his cell phone rang somewhere downstairs. He muttered a curse under his breath, heading out of the bedroom and for the stairs. Jade closed her eyes with a silent sigh, grateful for the interruption.

By the time he hung up, she had joined him, having finished dressing.

„Work ?" she asked. From his answers to whoever had been calling, she mused that this schedule had changed in some way.

„Yeah. I´ll have to leave an hour earlier than planned tomorrow. When do you leave ?"

„Tomorrow morning, around eleven."

Jade didn´t have the privilege to travel the most comfortable way. She would meet with the rest of the team and travel by bus.

„You´ll need help over at your place ?" he changed subject.

She grimaced.

„Don´t think so. I mean, you can´t help me sort the stuff out anyway."

„I could drop you off there and pick you up again on my way home from the gym later on", he suggested.

She smiled and nodded.

„Sounds good to me!"

„But what about your car ?"

She waved a hand.

„Don´t worry. I´ll ask the guys who own the garage downstairs. They´re used to fix it by now...won´t be the first dinner I´ll cook them."

Looking at her, he found that he was not really in the mood to go anywhere for anything. He would have preferred to stay right where they were. But he understood that she wanted to take care of that before they both had to return to work again, spending the rest of the week on the road that way.

„Something wrong ?" he asked suddenly.

„Why you´re asking ?" she asked back, only glancing at him over her shoulder.

He put one hand to her arm to keep her from moving away from him.

„You don´t look me in the eyes", he stated.

As if to prove his words, she glanced up to him, then broke eye contact again.

„There´s nothing wrong", she said after a moment. „It´s just..."

She bit her lip, searching for the right words.

„A lot to digest right now ?"

Grateful that he had delivered an answer himself, even if it was not exactly the one she would have given him, she nodded.

„Chill, baby", he muttered, running his fingers down her spine, musing that it would take the both of them some time to get used to the new situation. „We´re not in a hurry, are we ?"


	7. At work

Not much excitement in this chapter, but I´ll promise, there´ll be some more in the next one...I just needed to make the connection to get there :-)

* * *

The next few weeks passed in a rush.

Returning to work after their first shared weekend had felt weird to Jade. The time before had been thrilling enough, especially as she had not known what the Deadman had exactly been up to. Their unexpectedly shared weekend had been intense, even with her agitation about her ex-boyfriend breaking into her apartment aside. Back to work, things had been exactly like they had been when she had left them two days before - and still, somehow completely different.

After three more weeks, Jade had at least managed to grow accustomed to the fact that all this was really happening.

They had talked about how to handle things during work before they had parted after that first weekend. Jade risked getting fired in the worst case if people found out about her getting involved with one of the stars. And even if Mark could probably have exercised his influence in that case, they both felt that it was way too early to actually talk about a real relationship - not to speak of telling anyone about it. And at a point where the two of them had just decided to give the whole thing a try, the right time to tell the rest of the family about it had definitely not come.

The amount of travelling most people working for the WWE had to do led often to the same problems for all of them. Leaving frustrated partners and families at home was not exclusive to the WWE superstars only. But where the cramped travelling schedules usually led to problems with the ones back at home, they made the traveling companions themselves often get much closer to each other as colleagues usually became. In Jade´s case, as in many others around, mere colleagues had turned into friends over the years, and in certain respects into family. There was everything it needed for real family life around, from support, help and love over secrets, squabble and hatred to an occasional big family row from time to time. And just like in every other normal family, nothing spread faster than rumors about things that were supposed to be kept secret.

Jade had privately been wondering if their plan would really work out in the end - or for how long they would be able to keep things to themselves. Mark had not given up on stalking her from time to time to steal a kiss, but she had to admit that he was very careful when and where he did it. They had managed to steal a night for themselves here and there as well, but it had always been over way too soon for both their taste. And newly enarmoured or not, they both needed their sleep during the week as well.

Now here she was, back at the catacombs of some arena, back with the people she was taking care of for a living.

Trying hard not to think about last night which they had spent together, she failed, a shiver of delight running down her spine. In addition to the butterflies which had been constantly wreaking havoc in her stomach over the last few weeks and still did so every time she only spotted his frame around, it left her wondering if she was such a good actor or if people around her where actually that indifferent not to notice anything.

„Hey! Earth to Jadice Marie Cooper!"

Jade looked at her patient, startled.

„Did I hurt you ?" she asked.

The younger one of the Hardy brothers grinned at her.

„Didn´t you say you wanted Cara here to do this and were just showing her how to do it exactly ?" he asked, pointing at his wrist.

She realized belatedly that, after finishing her explanation to Cara about how to treat Jeff´s wrist best, she had just went on with doing it herself.

„Sorry", she said, blushing. „I got lost in thoughts."

With her mind in the gutter, she had completely forgotten about the girl.

Jeff grinned.

„You don´t tell", he said. „I addressed to you twice before and you didn´t even seem to hear me."

„Sorry", she repeated, smiling weakly.

„No problem, darlin´."

He grinned that mischievous grin of his.

„A penny for your thoughts!" he added.

„Come on, get over here", Jade told Cara, getting up and pointing at the place she had just been in. „You can continue for me."

„I guess Jeff here is gonna help us out and endure the torture a little longer to make you get some practice", she added, exchanging a glance and grin with Jeff´s brother Matt. They had both seen Jeff eyeballing Cara before.

„So, Cara, last time we talked we were interrupted when you were just up to tell me where you´re from", Jeff said.

Before Cara could even open her mouth to answer, the door flew open.

„Eh, did nobody teach you to _knock_ ?" Matt asked the young assistant storming into the room.

„I´m sorry", the assistant mumbled breathlessley. „Jade, Barry needs you over at Cedric´s locker room. There was just some kind of training accident in the ring. It´s urgent!"

„Me ?" Jade asked in surprise. Barry was one of the trainers.

„Chris hasn´t arrived yet", the assistant explained. „And Barry says he needs a physio _now_."

„Who´s been involved ?" Matt asked.

„Cedric and Lucas", the assistant answered impatiently.

„And Cedric´s gotten hurt ?" Jeff inquired.

„Both, from what I understood", the assistant mumbled. „Could we go now, please ? Cedric was already freaking a minute ago."

„Great!" Jade muttered. It was rather unusual that people were already doing rehearsals without the whole medical team present and the last thing she wanted to do was going to take care of an already freaking hothead like Cedric, especially not after their last encounter. She hadn´t been working with him ever since and hadn´t regretted that.

„You can get this finished here", she told Cara. „I´ll have a look."

„Wait a second, does that mean the ring´s free ?" Matt asked the assistant.

The young man nodded.

„Hey, come on, that´s our chance!" Matt said, nudging his brother. „You can continue Cara´s questioning later on as well!"

Jeff threw his brother a dark look while Cara blushed slightly.

„Alright, let´s go !" Jade addressed Cara, even if she wasn´t really keen on starting the day with taking care of Cedric of all people.

XXX

Mark was already slightly unnerved when he finally arrived at the arena that day. The journey had been one big mess and things hadn´t gone much better at the hotel. Finally, he had barely made it to the arena because of a car crash that had immediately made the city´s home-going traffic collapse completely.

He nodded to the guy at the entrance who tallied his name on a list and gave him instructions about where to find his dressing room. He made his way deeper into

into the backstage area, but the moment he turned around another corner, with the dressing room with his and Glen´s name at the door right to the left, he could tell that things were not going any better around here.

About a dozen of people had gathered in front of another locker room door down the hall. There was shouting inside the locker room and murmuring among the people in front of it. Someone definitely female was crying heartbreakingly.

After all the years, Mark was usually not really bothered anymore by any trouble or delay while travelling. But finally arriving at the day´s showplace only to find people already running riot here as well really got to him. He could have disappeared to his locker room and left it to other people to sort this mess out, people who were actually paid to do that, but then again, he had never been the type to wait for that - and he hated to see the domestic bliss so massively disturbed that early in the day. So he put his bag down in front of his dressing room´s door and walked down the hallway.

Two or three of the divas were there, along with some of their styling retinue. He recognized with Jeff Hardy one half of the Hardy Boyz, with two or three rookies on his heels. A nervous looking slanky assistant was talking to some local security personnel. But so far, he hadn´t been able to glimpse the source of the crying.

„What the hell is going on here ?" he demanded to know.

Heads turned. The divas and their retinue let him pass.

A young girl sat on the floor right next to the locker room´s door, crying her eyes out, with Jeff Hardy and Jade of all people trying to calm her down.

He repeated his question. Then his eyes fell on the makeshift name tag at the door.

He frowned, realizing that he was not really surprised to find the name of Bo Cedric there.

„This idiot pushed her away and shouted at her!" Jeff told him angrily.

„Yeah, easy", Mark said, raising one hand in a soothing gesture. He had no idea who the girl was. „And who the hell..."

„Cara is new around", Jade answered the question before he could even finish asking it, one hand still on Cara´s forearm. „She belongs to the physio team. Bo first shouted at her for no reason and then shoved her aside."

„You´ve been around ?" Mark inquired.

Jade nodded.

„Yeah. Chris had just arrived as well."

„Fine, whatever, why don´t you get her out of the corridor and somewhere a little more quiet ?" Mark suggested.

„Come on, girl", Jeff muttered, he and Jade pulling the still crying physiotherapist to her feet. She looked still terrified.

Voices rose again inside the locker room.

„I take it Bo´s still in there", Mark commented drily on Cedric starting to shout at the top of his lungs on the other side of the door.

Jade nodded.

„Well, I guess that whoever is in charge tonight wants to hear both sides later on, so..."

At that moment, the door opened. The chef physio marched out of the locker room, fuming.

„What in the world is going on around here ?" another voice asked at the same time from behind. Finally, one of the people getting paid to take care of situations like this had found his way down to the catacombs.

„This man", Chris snapped unexpectedly at the operations manager, pointing into the direction of Cedric ,„is impossible to work with and I´m tired of his attitude !"

XXX

„Hey, man."

Mark put his cell away the moment Glen returned to their dressig room from having a shower after his match, greeting him casually.

„Hey", he replied. „Where have you been this afternoon ?"

Glen had arrived that late that Mark had already been out for his own match at the time Glen had finally made it to the arena.

„It was all hell at the airport because of these strikes and all hell in town", Glen mumbled. „I thought I wouldn´t even make it here in time for my match!"

Mark only nodded. „I got also stuck in this truck crash this afternoon. How´s Debra ?"

„Pretty good, but her sister´s at the hospital again, so she went over to help her husband with the kids."

Glen had put his bag down to a nearby table and had opened it. Then he paused, glancing at his friend.

„Tell me somethin´", he requested. „Who is that lucky girl you´ve been sending all these messages to lately ?"

Mark´s head came up at the question and Glen grinned. So he had been right about that.

„So, who is she ?" he repeated.

Mark got up and reached for his own bag.

„Sorry, man", he only said.

Glen raised his eyebrows, not offended, but surprised.

„It´s a secret ?" he asked good-humoredly.

Even Mark had to grin at that question. He nodded nevertheless.

„Yeah, kind of."

He turned towards Glen and grimaced.

„Sounds quite ridiculous, doesn´t it ?" the Deadman asked.

„Well, kind of", Glen admitted. „Why can´t you tell me ?"

Mark perched an eyebrow.

„If I would tell you why I can´t tell you..."

„Yeah, alright, alright, I got it! Forget about it!"

Glen grinned.

„But whoever she is, she´s obviously good for you!"

„How´s that ?" Mark inquired, more grumpily than intended.

Glen´s grin only grew bigger.

„Look at yourself, man. You´ve been Mr. Cool himself over the last few weeks. If it hadn´t been for that girl, you would already have taken Cedric to task for example!"

„Woah, don´t start with that, alright ?"

„Well, am I not right ?"

Mark grunted.

„You probably are. You´re happy now ?"

Glen grinned.

„Well, not exactly. But we´re on a good way. Tell me at least if it´s something serious."

Mark cursed Glen silently, the friend´s curiosity bringing last night´s intense lovemaking back to his mind. He did his best to keep a straight face and was actually sure to have managed to do so, but Glen only laughed at him.

„Damn, boy, she´s got ya, hasn´t she ?"

„Just do me a favor..."

A knock at the door interrupted them.

„Get in", they both said at the same time.

„Hey there", Jade said, entering. „I was told you have work for me", she addressed Glen with a smile.

„Yeah, kind of", he answered. „Twisted my ankle out there after landing the wrong way."

„Well, let me see that", Jade told him.

„Has the girl calmed down a little ?" Mark asked while Glen sat down to let Jade get to work.

Jade nodded.

„Yeah. Took a while."

„Is she that squeamish ?"

Jade threw him a surprisingly dark sideglance.

„She´s not squeamish! She´s just through a lot of shit with her ex-husband, including a prolongued stay at the hospital, and she´s got the job only some weeks by now and she´s damn eager to keep it! She´s good and ambitious and happy to be able to put some space between herself and her family and people like Cedric shouting at her and pushing her around for nothing aren´t excactly what she needs right now!"

Mark didn´t comment. It was obvious how angry she still was and it was only her professionalism that had kept her from finding harsher words.

„Have you heard about what actually happened between Cedric and Lucas this afternoon during training ?" she asked the both of them, a little calmer than before.

Mark only nodded while Glen frowned. Cedric had overdone, almost breaking Lucas´ arm.

„I mean, what´s wrong with this guy ? I am no expert, but how can they let a guy like him fight ? He´s hurtin´ people like what feels like every day. I mean, last year when he had just given a contract they said he still lacks some technique and stuff..."

Jade broke off. It was against all her principles to talk about something like that with the athletes around. If at all, she would usually maybe talk with her colleagues of the physio theam about that, but surely not with somebody else. For some reason, the scene in the afternoon had shaken her more than it should have.

„Well, I dare to say I _am_ an expert", Glen answered with a shrug. „And he still lacks technique...but the much bigger problem is - he lacks self-control. If he´s not getting a grip on that soon..."

Mark sat back, astonished. As unexpected as it had come that Jade had spoken her mind that way just a moment ago, as unexpected came Glen´s blunt answer right now.

The three of them spent another minute in companionable silence until someone knocked and another help´s face appeared in the door after being invited in.

„Glen, Sheila sends me, asking if you could get over to her at the office", the young woman asked. „I don´t wanna interrupt", she added, looking at Jade. „But I understood it´s urgent."

Jade raised both her hands.

„We can do this later on as well", she said, getting up. „I don´t think it will be much of a problem. You can have Sheila page me when you´re done."

„Thanks anyway", Glen muttered, getting back to his feet as well.

„You´re gonna show me the way ?" he addressed the help.

„Sure", she nodded.

„Alright", Glen said, nodding as well. „See you later then", he told Mark and Jade.

Mark was already pulling her close the moment the door fell shut behind Glen, pulling her over into a corner of the room where nobody would see them the first moment walking into the room and finally to his lap.

„You´re damn mad at that guy, aren´t you ?" he asked after kissing her.

She nodded.

„Yeah. I´m sorry."

He shrugged.

„There´s no reason to be so."

„It´s none of my business."

„If he´s shouting at your friend for no reason, that makes it your business, no ?"

She grimaced.

„It´s just unfair! I mean, I understand when you´re treating someone in pain and he snaps at you in such a situaton. It´s alright! But over the last few weeks, I´ve gotten the feeling that Cedric´s been picking those people he harasses deliberately - it seems always to be somebody who will surely not complain to anyone about it! Can´t this guy find someone of his own calibre to push around ?"

Mark had been busy placing soft kisses along her neck. Now he grunted.

„Our boy has been in quite a bad mood recently, hasn´t he ?" he agreed. Cedric had been a loudmouth before, but his arrogance and inappropriate behaviour had become close to unbearable over the last few weeks.

„Yeah, and he´s taking it out on the wrong people! I mean if _you _are in a bad mood, you´re gonna keep it to yourself or you´re gonna get Glen or Shawn or Paul until they kick your ass, but..."

„Wait a second, wait a second, I do _what_ ?" Mark asked, tilting his head. Giving her the ´think again about what you just said and to whom`-stare worked perfectly. To his amuse, she looked immediately crestfallen. She nudged his chest the moment she realized that he was just pulling her leg, but smiled finally, which had been his only intention.

„He has turned into a real bully!" she stated then, still annoyed. „Wonder when he´s going to start taking candy from children and laugh into their faces!"

„Relax", he told her. „The week´s almost over and the drive home won´t take long. Do you have any plans for the weekend ?"

She shook her head.

„You ?" she asked back.

„There´s an open air concert tomorrow night, nothing big, some local bands...a friend of mine´s organizing it... we could take the bike and go there if you´re up to it."

„As long as you´re not going to take me to a hip-hop festival..."

„Come on!" he muttered. „I am too old for crap like that. But if you prefer it, we could also stay at home..."

„And watch a movie ?" she asked, letting her head reast against his shoulder.

„Mhmm."

Jade had grown used to Mark´s muttering instead of proper answers over the years. She knew how to interpret the different pitches. But it had taken the recent change in their relationship to make her realize that whereas other people found that this habit of his make communication with the taciturn giant only more difficult as it already was, she really liked it.

„The same movie we agreed to watch the last two weekends and never made it ?" she inquired quietly.

They had had better things to do than watching movies. He only chuckled at her sardonic comment.

„Don´t you worry", he replied. „I´m gonna take good care of you."

„Hope so", she whispered, tilting her head to let him caress the back of her neck. „But the concert sounds good! We...

A sound at the door made her jump. To her relief, nobody entered or even knocked.

„As I said", he muttered. „The week´s almost over."

He tightened her embrace for a moment before he released her. They were both looking forward to skipping the seek and hide game for at least fourty-eight hours.

Jade´s pager chirping made her jump again.

„God, this is ridiculous!" she complained. „Got to go", she mumbled with a look at it, getting back to her feet.

„Do me a favor and stay out of Cedric´s way for the rest of the night", Mark told her, getting up as well.

She threw him a peculiar look.

„What´s on your mind ?" she asked suspiciously.

He only shrugged, but she held his gaze, not willing to leave without an answer.

„If I _ever_ catch the guy shouting at you", he replied finally," I can only hope for him that he can run faster than he usually thinks."

„You do realize that it wouldn´t be very helpful to keep our little secret a secret if you kick his ass for shouting at me, don´t you ?" she said with a doubtful look up to him.

„You know what ?" he muttered, softly caressing her jaw.

„You don´t give a damn ?"

„Exactly!"

She looked thoughtful for a moment. Then she took a step forward and placed a soft kiss on his bare chest.

„Thanks", she said softly. „And now I´ll have to hurry. See you tomorrow then!"

He only nodded.

Jade left, a wave of silent excitement washing over her. It had been a while since someone had promised her to stand up for her like that and she had no doubt that Mark had not been making an empty promise here.


	8. The visitor

_Credits to Kendra151!_

* * *

The next day in the afternoon, Mark glanced at his watch, then up to the windows of Jade´s apartment as if he could find out that way what was taking her so long. She had told him that she would be ready and waiting for him to pick her up before.

He fumbled his cell out of his pocket and called her but she didn´t answer the call. More startled than disgruntled, he got off the bike to have a look.

The moment he entered the hallway to her apartment, he noticed loud voices arguing. He had made it just halfway down the hall to her door when the door suddenly opened.

„Jus´ get the hell out of here!" Jade barked at someone.

„Why are you so tense ?" a male voice asked. „Is your new boy not doing a proper job on you ?"

„I said get out!"

Her former boyfriend walked over to her and unexpectedly wrenched her cell out of her hand. He flipped it open, evading her when she tried to get it back.

„Why don´t we send him a little message ? Will be fun, come on! What did you say is his name ?"

„Gavin, stop! Gimme the cell back!"

„Wow, now you´re gettin´ all upset, huh ? Let me see, why don´t we tell him that you don´t wanna see him tonight ? You could spend the evening with me instead..."

„Gimme the damn cell back!" she flipped.

Mark put one hand against the door and shoved it open, stepping into the room.

„Won´t be necessary to send the boy a message", he commented drily.

Jade turned to him, obviously upset, while her ex-boyfriend stood stunned for a moment.

„You´re alright ?" Mark addressed Jade.

She took advantage of Gavin´s temporary bafflement and wrenched her cell out of his hand.

„Yeah", she answered Mark belatedly, taking a step backwards to bring some room between Gavin and herself.

She noticed Gavin staring at Mark while Mark himself had kept his eyes on her. Satisfied to see that she seemed unharmed, he turned to face Gavin.

„´s there a problem here ?" he asked, eyeing up the younger man. The punk was taller than he had expected him to be, lanky, with a very pale boyish face and greasy light hair. Besides the chill air inside the apartment, he was sweating. It was obvious that he hadn´t expected Jade´s boyfriend to be of that particular height and built.

„At which truckstop dragged you this ugly specimen up ?" Gavin asked Jade. „Can he even spell his name ?"

Jade paled at Gavin´s words. In all the years, she had only once witnessed an outbreak of temper on Mark´s side and things had very quickly become scary enough for all the people present back then. To her relief, Mark looked quite indifferent for the moment.

„Go", she only demanded.

„Now you´re feeling pretty strong, huh ?" Gavin shot back angrily.

Mark kept his nerves, waiting for Gavin to take action. If the guy was only half as smart as Jade believed him to be, than there was no need to point out to him that he was on the losing side here.

„You heard her, didn´t you ?" Mark only finally said when Gavin didn´t move.

Gavin glared at him, but didn´t answer. He walked past Jade and grabbed his backpack and jacket. Mark took a step aside to let him pass on his way out, but then something caught his eye.

„Wait a second!" he demanded, putting a large hand to Gavin´s shoulder.

„What ?!" the younger one snarled, jumping slightly.

Mark reached with his free hand for the laptop that was half-hidden under Gavin´s jacket, recognizing the WWE sticker on the case.

„Ain´t that yours ?" he asked Jade whose jaw dropped at the sight of her laptop.

She nodded.

Mark dropped the hand he had held Gavin up with, never taking his eyes from him. He waited until the guy had made it around the corner and, from the sounds, down the stairs. Then he slammed the apartment´s door shut. Where it hadn´t been a problem with the freak around, he had now a hard time to keep his temper down.

„Say what you wanna say, Mark", Jade demanded quietly. „I can take it."

He was again surprised how easy it obviously was for her to read him.

„What the hell was _he_ doing here again ?" he asked, clearly disgruntled.

„He asked me for money", Jade answered quietly. „Like usual."

„Did you give him money ?"

She smiled tiredly.

„No."

„Why the hell would he want to steal your laptop ?"

He handed it back to her. The thing had seen better times and Mark wondered how desperate that guy had to be to try and steal it if he wasn´t after any data stored on it.

„I have no idea", Jade muttered.

Still annoyed, he pulled her closer to kiss her.

„I would really prefer if you wouldn´t let this guy into your apartment", he told her afterwards.

Jade smiled weakly at his carefully chosen words, appreciating his efforts not to shout bloody murder at her at once. But Mark didn´t make it the whole way anyway.

„How the hell did he even get in here ?" he asked angrily. „Don´t tell me you invited him in!"

Jade frowned.

„Believe it or not, he knocked and I opened the door."

Mark raised one hand to stop her from giving him any further explanations before she could go on.

„_Why_ ?"

She shook her head.

„Cause I thought it was you !"

Mark scratched his bearded jaw in a gesture of annoyance she had seen many times before. It was obviously a gesture not only reserved for the Undertaker.

„Come on", she mumbled, trying her best to hide her own anxiety about Gavin´s visit. „I don´t wanna let this ruin our day, alright ? Just let´s get going!"

„I wasn´t done!" Mark said, putting his hands to his sides.

Jade pressed her lips together for a moment.

„Well, tell me then!" she encouraged him after a moment. He could tell that she wasn´t fazed in any way. He couldn´t deny that a part of him liked that fact, even if he was slightly mad at her right now.

„You know, I hate the idea of you living at this place!" he said. „I told you that before!"

„Yeah, like about a dozen times", she retorted.

„Are you aware that if this guy is ever going to freak out or bring some freaky friends, that you´ll be damn alone out here ?"

Jade raised her hands, waving his words aside.

„Alright - that´s enough!" she stated firmly. „I am as save here as anywhere else and he´s no threat to me, alright ? What do you want me to do ? Move in with you after three weeks ? Besides, I have just moved three months ago! I am tired of it!"

„Well, you should think about moving nevertheless, you know, not only because of your freaky ex-boyfriend, but because this is no place for you to live! Regarding him, moving

to get rid of him doesn´t seem to work anyway - you´ll have to think of something else, I guess!"

„Like what ?" she asked angrily.

„Like calling the police, for example."

„What for ? That´s pointless! He hasn´t threatened me and I cleaned up the mess he left the last time!"

„Why is he in such a need for your money ?" Mark inquired.

Jade sighed.

„I told you, he´s lost his job in New York and it seems that he hasn´t found another one so far."

„What is he on ?" Mark asked.

Jade frowned, hesitating, while Mark waited for her to answer the question.

„Don´t even think of playing dumb, girl, I´m not buying it. What is he on ? Meth ?"

Jade averted her eyes for a moment, sighing.

„I don´t know. Honestly, I have no idea."

So she had realized it.

„Darlin´, I don´t wanna scare you, but that guy could lose control any time, especially if he can´t afford the drugs. If he needs a fix, he´s not gonna give a damn about how long you two have been knowing each other. You know that, don´t you ?"

„You don´t wanna scare me, huh ?" she asked.

He reached out to brush a strand of dark hair out of her face.

„I take it that he already is acting quite irrational, ain´t he ? Even if he won´t probably do something to you, what if he decides one day not only to come here to steal your money, but to bring some friends ? You´re seriously underestimating this situation !"

„And what makes you an expert ?" she inquired, getting unnerved.

„I lost two friends thanks to some shit they had gotten addicted two and I watched some more slowly getting wrecked by all kinds of shit they were taking!"

„What do you want me to do ?" she asked, despair ringing through her voice. „I can´t rat him out to the cops, Mark! I´ve known this guy from the cradle!"

Mark put his head back for a moment, sighing heavily, cursing her privately for her loyalty to that freak, even more as he could understand her reasoning at least partly.

„Have you ever done that ?" she demanded to know.

„No", he answered honestly.

„Didn´t think so!" she muttered.

„Well, you have to admit that your situation here is slightly different, no !?" he argued. „Did you tried to talk to him about the drug thing ?"

She nodded.

„Yeah. He only shouted at me."

„Surprise! But it´s what he needs the money for, ain´t it ?"

She nodded again, looking suddenly very tired.

„I think so."

Jade sighed.

„Look, I´ll think of something, okay ? I´m gonna do something. But the last thing I want right now is getting into a fight with you! I´d just like to go to this gig and have some fun, alright ? It has been a damn long week and we have a damn long week to come and I just want some to spend some time with you now and forget about this for some hours."

Mark grunted lowly. He was not contented with the outcome of their discussion, but was as unwilling as she was to let it ruin the rest of their time off. And at that point, it seemed fruitless to discuss the matter any further.

„So, you´re ready to go then ?" he asked somewhat abruptly.

She nodded.

„Yeah."

He took his time to eye her up for a moment. She was wearing baggy blue camo trousers to heavy boots and a dark tight-fitting shirt with the classic Metallica logo across her chest. With the mass of long dark hair falling for once unrestrained over her shoulders and the light make-up she had put on, she looked amazing. Still, he couldn´t withstand the temptation.

„You´re sure ?"

„Yeah", she answered uncomfortably. „Why ?"

„Well, you might still have to change or getting your make-up done or somethin´... „

Jade frowned.

„You said we were going to take the bike ", she said, looking down at herself. „And that it´s an open air thing, so..."

He could literally see the wheels spinning inside her head by now and regretted that he had teased her right in this moment.

„It´s alright", he interrupted her, smirking. „I´m sorry."

She looked everything else than convinced.

His smirk changed into an open grin.

„J., it´s alright! I shouldn´t have teased you. You look great, baby."

She still looked doubtful.

„Come on! I was just joking, okay ?"

„You have a weird sense of humor, you know", she complained lowly.

„And you shouldn´t let it get to you that easily if someone´s talking crap."

He bent forward to kiss her.

You look amazing", he mumbled, letting his forehead resting against hers for a moment, emphasizing his words with another kiss.

„Couldn´t find another rocker girl looking any hotter than you in the whole damn city", he added.

Jade took a step backwards, glancing doubtfully at him.

„Good Lord!" she muttered.

„What ?" he asked innocently.

„I´m just gonna take that as a compliment, even if it´s been a backhanded one!"

He grinned.

„It wasn´t meant to be backhanded", he argued, keeping a straight face.

„Oh _really_ !?" she inquired, making him contentedly find that her defiance was back.

„If it was such a bad compliment", he contered,"then why are you blushing ?"

To his amuse, her blush only deepened while she was staring up to him. But she wasn´t willing to give up that easily.

„I guess I see now why they never made Taker get involved with a diva or something", she said. „You´re better off with the badass thing, so much´s clear!"

She grabbed her jacket.

„Now, are we going or what ?"

„Do you always have to have the last word ?" he asked.

She only smiled.

„Someone should really put you in your place, girl!"

„And that someone´s you ?" she asked, trying to slip past him, only to end up with her feet her back pinned against the doorframe.

„Problem with that ?" he inquired.

She put a rueful expression on, glancing coyly up to him. He had to admit that she played the role very well. Then she put her head back, clearly begging for a kiss. He didn´t lose much time to oblige her.

„Not at all", she answered his question after that.

He raised one eyebrow, wondering if that tame answer had been everything she had had ready for him.

„That´s all ?" he inquired.

Her smile broadened.

„Can´t await to see you trying", she whispered with a shrug.


	9. The beautiful stranger

_I haven´t been sure about this chapter for quite a while despite the fact that it was one of the first I´ve written and even before I actually really knew where I wanted this story to go...hope you people enjoy it anyway! And yes, there will be some more to be told about the rest of that night in the next chapter ;-)_

* * *

Jade felt slightly nervous when they arrived at the former industrial area where the concert was going to take place. Focusing on the evening to come in an attempt to overcome the shock of encountering Gavin again didn´t make things much better.

Jade knew who Mark was friends with at work and felt reassured by the facts. His sometimes unnerving taciturnity aside, he wasn´t hard to get along with in her eyes, at least not if one didn´t object to his rather unique achievements in the business. But Mark used to bluntly speak his mind, even if it took quite a while sometimes until he did so, and his fair and square way of letting people know what he was thinking sometimes simply collided with some of the other egos around.

To her, getting involved with somebody didn´t only mean to get along with the person itself. As romantic as it was to believe that it was all only about the two people involved with each other, Jade knew that things simply didn´t work this way. Getting involved with somebody also meant to get along with this person´s family and friends. The chemistry between the two lovers surely was the most important thing, but it was still only a part of the whole picture. Jade knew from her own experience that it made things difficult if the family and friends of one side didn´t get along with the partner on the other. It sometimes even left at least partner isolated from either his family and friends or his or her partner. Knowing Mark´s friends from work, she had no doubts that she would get along with them, but for now, they didn´t know about Jade and him. As a consequence, she had no idea what these people - or her own friends - would probably have to say about the two of them. It left her curious to meet some of his friends from outside the business. And she was curious about how he was going to introduce her to people.

XXX

They left the bike in front of the gates to the complex right next to a lot of others. The people present looked mostly like the audience she had expected, bikers, Hardrock fans, and, to her relief, some Metal fans as well.

The guy responsible at the entrance greeted Mark with a clasp of hands while Jade glanced around.

„Hey, Taker, good to see you."

„Yeah, good to see you, too. Looks like Jake found the right bands to draw some people this time", Mark mused, glancing around as well.

„Yeah, definitely! He´s somewhere around, was quite nervous the last time he came past here... wait a second."

The guy fumbled a backstage pass out of a box to hand it to Mark. „Jake told me to give you one if you show up..."

„Backstage passes ?" Mark asked with a grin. „He´s really camping it up, ain´t he ?!"

The man nodded, grinning as well.

„Well, what can I say ?" he replied.

He looked from Mark to Jade and back to Mark. Then he obviously decided not to ask, shrugged and handed Jade a pass as well.

„If you´re looking for Jake, just ask one of the security guys for him..."

The man frowned for a moment.

„You know most of the guys anyway, don´t you ?!" he mused. „You guys have fun!"

XXX

They crossed the area in front of the stage with Mark walking into a friend here and there, stopping to greet some of them them and shake hands. Jade couldn´t determine how many of them were close friends or simply bowing acquaintances. The surprised and curious looks she was eyeballed with by some of them didn´t escape her, neither did the grins and nods the guys blatantly exchanged with Mark. But nobody asked him openly about her and he didn´t give any information away for free.

Jade followed him willingly. He had taken her by the hand to avoid loosing her on their way through the crowd that had already gathered in front of the stage and she quietly enjoyed watching how his appearance alone easily cleared the way for them. Still used to meet him solely at work where he was only one among many tall and brawny guys, it amused her to see people stepping out of his way to let him pass, his large frame drawing people´s attention.

On the right side of the stage, they met another one of his acquaintances, for once a guy almost as tall as him and definitely heavier packed with muscle. The shirt he was wearing as well as the walkie-talkie and the backstage pass around his neck indicated clearly that he was part of the security personnel. Jade mused that from his outer appearance alone, he could easily have been working for WWE as well.

The men exchanged a few words she didn´t understand over the noise of the soundcheck going on on stage and the guys talking at a completely different level. The only thing she caught was the guy pointing to a place somewhere behind the stage. Stepping aside, he let the two of them enter the small backstage area.

They had only taken some steps when somebody called Mark´s name.

Mark turned, forcing Jade to stop in her tracks.

„Look who´s doing the honors tonight!"

Jake held out his hand to his longtime friend and Mark accepted it.

„Good to see you!" Mark told him.

„Good to see you! Has been a while!"

Mark grinned.

„There are people who actually have to work out there, man."

„Look who´s talking", Jake retorted. „Our Sunday wrestler! I heard you´ve been playing hard to get for a while!"

„I didn´t play hard to get, you jackass, I´ve been injured."

„Yeah, that´s what they all say, ain´t it."

Jake´s grin broadened while Mark only shook his head.

„Well, ain´t you going to introduce us ?" Jake asked then, curiously looking at Jade.

„Not that you deserve it...this is Jade Cooper and this..." Mark raised one eyebrow. „Is Jake Parker...scalawag by trade."

Jake laughed out.

„Says the man who makes his money by beating up others", he contered casually.

Jade smiled. Jake was the opposite from everything Mark was. Not much taller than her, wiry, with a dark complexion and short black hair, he had nothing on Mark physically. From the looks alone, they made a rather funny couple.

„Nice to meet you", Jake said, shaking Jade´s hand. Then he tilted his head.

„Just to avoid any misunderstandings...", he said then thoughtfully, addressing Mark. „She´s your girl ?"

Mark chuckled,

„If that´s your try on being polite - it´s pathetic", he answered.

„Hey, you only said you´re gonna bring someone... you didn´t say who exactly! So ?"

Jade looked up to Mark, curious about what he was going to answer.

„_Yes_, Jake, she´s my girl!" Mark answered, putting one arm loosely around Jade´s waist. „Your contented now ?"

„Good Lord, Jade, how did a girl like you end up with a grumpy bastard like him ?" Jake went on jibing.

A sharp whistle behind them made Mark and Jade turn.

„Eh ! Calaway!"

Mark turned.

A woman had almost made her way over to them. The moment Mark turned, she crossed the last few steps between them in a run and jumped at him, obviously relying on him to catch her. Jake grabbed Jade quick-wittedly by the arm and pulled her away to avoid that she would be pushed aside.

Marc actually caught the stranger and she didn´t lose time to fling her arms around his neck.

Jade thought of her as about the same age as herself. She was tall for a woman, at least a head taller than she herself, with dark hair that reached down to the waistband of the tight fitting leather pants. She had some pounds more than the current understanding of slim would have allowed, but it only emphasized her curves. It was the same with her makeup. Wearing more than probably would have been advisable for anybody else, it only emphasized her distinct features. She could wear it without looking tawdry.

Feeling Jake´s hand still resting warm on her arm, Jade had to admit that whoever the woman was, she simply looked gorgeous. Her mouth went dry the moment she had to witness the beautiful stranger kissing Mark straight on the lips.

While Jade suddenly felt pretty weak, Mark set the woman down, looking more perplexed than annoyed,

„What in the world are you doing here ?" he asked her.

„Well, I could ask you the same, couldn´t I ?" she retorted mysteriously.

„Are you crazy ?" he inquired next, putting his hands to his sides while staring down at her.

„Oh come on, I thought that was common knowledge", she challenged.

Jake cleared his throat behind her and caused her to turn.

„Oh darlin´, don´t rush me, alright ?" she told him, turning back to Mark.

„Liz !" Jake muttered.

„What ?!" she hissed, slightly annoyed, putting her hands to her hips the same way Mark had just done after turning to Jake again. The annoyed exclamation and the way she glared at him remembered Jade slightly of somebody else, but she was too stunned to follow that thought right at that moment.

„Liz, this is Jade", Jake introduced them, pointing at Jade.

Liz raised her eyebrows, huge green eyes widening in curiosity.

„Hi", she said, obviously waiting for some further explanation. Jade could literally watch her wonder who the hell she might be or why Jake was introducing them.

„Hi", Jade managed to mutter in response.

„Jade here", Jake assisted Liz,"is Mark´s girlfriend."

Liz looked from Jake to Jade and back.

„Crap!" she said then, her hand coming up to her mouth.

„Yeah, crap !" Mark agreed, softly slapping the back of her head. Liz ducked.

„Meet my sister Elizabeth !" Mark told Jade.

„He´s calling you Elizabeth", Jake pointed unnecessarily out to Liz. „You´re so done for."

„Yeah, you wait for it", Liz mumbled, looking from Mark to Jade and back.

„I had no idea...", she muttered.

To Jade´s complete surprise, Liz took suddenly a step forward and hugged her.

„I´m sorry", she told her with the most disarming smile Jade had seen in a while. „I had no idea. This must have looked really weird to you."

„It did", Jade admitted, still perplexed.

Liz glanced at Mark who shook his head at her.

„Hell, how was I supposed to know that ?" Liz defended herself. „Well, thinking about it, I _should _probably have known it, shouldn´t I ? You _have_ been behaving a little strange recently."

Mark only perched an eyebrow.

„What did you say are you doing here ?" he repeated his question from before.

„How about I am here to watch the concert ?" she responded.

„What are you doing backstage then ?" Mark insisted.

Liz and Jake exchanged a nervous glance.

„Well...", Liz started.

„What she´s trying to tell you is that she´s, uh, kind of, my girl by now", Jake said after a moment.

Mark tilted his head. There was a pause.

„Say again", Mark demanded after a moment.

Jake nudged Liz´ arm.

„Didn´t you say you´re gonna tell him ?" he asked.

„I would have", Liz replied. „But he didn´t call me back once when I tried to talk to him and I guess I have an idea about the reasons by now!"

„Are you two serious ?" Mark interrupted.

Liz grimaced, then nodded. Jade had to hide a smile. After the first shock, she found the resemblance between brother and sister to be striking, at least regarding their gestures and countenance.

„Yeah", Jake said casually.

Mark rubbed his jaw for a moment.

„´s that a good or a bad sign ?" Jake whispered to Liz.

„You´re still at your feet and he´s not shouting so far", Liz muttered back. „I´ll take that for a good sign. Besides, you do know him longer than I do, remember ?"

XXX

„She´s hot!" Jake muttered to Mark, eyeing up Jade up while she was making her way back over to them with Liz at her side, another round of drinks in their hands. Liz had left the backstage area with Mark and Jade to see the concert and Jake had just joined them some minutes before.

„I know", Mark answered coolly. Jake laughed at the expression of quiet satisfaction on his friend´s face. He had obviously not taken any offence by Jake´s choice of words.

„She seems to be enjoying the gig, besides."

„She´s quite into that kind of music."

„Who would have thought that you would some day find a girl who doesn´t ask you when you´re going to take her home again the minute you arrived", Jake muttered sarcastically, clearly referring to Mark´s ex-wife Melissa.

Mark chose not to comment on that.

„So, can you approve of me and Liz ?" Jake asked after another moment.

Mark crossed thick-muscled arms in front of his chest. Jake knew the gesture. Normally, it didn´t mean good, not to speak of approval.

„No", he said simply.

„Come on!" Jake argued.

„If you want somebody´s blessing, go get Jeffrey´s! I´m not the head of the family, remember ?"

„Well, I´d prefer to get yours...you know that Jeffrey and I have never gotten along very well."

„Well, good luck then!" Mark wished him sardonically. Nobody seemed to ever have gotten particularly well along with his oldest brother and where Mark and Jeffrey had simply never been very close, things had always been kind of tense between Jeffrey and the little sister their mother had given birth to almost twenty years after Jeffrey had been born. But that didn´t mean that Jeffrey, just like Mark or any other one of three remaining Calaway brothers, would not have kicked any freak´s ass for messing with the youngest Calaway sibling. Mark knew that Liz had sometimes a hard time to decide if to think of the whole thing as a blessing or a curse.

„Come on, man, you know me", Jake insisted. „At least I am not going to promise her to marry her only to have her find out some day that I already have a family!"

„Yeah, see, that´s the problem", Mark told him. „I _know_ you! I´m only telling you this once, _Jacob_, if you upset her, if you lie to her or do any kind of shit you will think of to her, I am gonna break every single bone in your pathetic little body and I bet I´ll have even Jeffrey´s approval for once for doing so."

„Wait a second, what do you mean by any kind of shit I _will_ think of ?" Jake indignantly demanded to know.

„And you already broke two bones in this pathetic little body, remember ?" he added, referring back to a time when they both still had been kids.

„Well, take it as a foretaste", Mark suggested bluntly.

„You do realize that you´re not at work, don´t you ?" Jake said.

„Yeah." Mark nodded. „That should make you realize that I am for once not making idle threats."

„Alright, alright, I got it."

The women had just reached them, handing them their drinks, when the band on stage played the first tunes of the next song, a cover. Liz nudged Jade´s arm.

„They´re playing Metallica!" she exclaimed.

Jade nodded.

„ ´For whom the bell tolls` ", she answered, having recognized the song as well.

„Front row ?" Liz asked.

Jade hesitated, glancing at Mark. He only grinned.

„You girls go!" he encouraged them, reaching to hold her drink for her.

„Come on!" Liz interjected, grabbing Jade´s hand and pulling her with her before Jade even could find the time to agree or refuse.

„Seems that they are getting along quite well", Jake muttered.

Mark nodded, watching the two of them make their way through the crowd. Not too long ago, Liz had had to find out in the middle of the preparations for her wedding that her longtime boyfriend and fiance already had a wife and even kids. The following weeks and months had been more than hard for her and it hadn´t been that long ago that Mark had seen her smile again for the first time ever since. It was good to see her enjoying herself again.

„Look, I guess I wouldn´t probably mind that much if Liz hadn´t just been through all that shit with this idiot", he told Jake. „You´ve seen her back then, haven´t you ?"

„I understand that", Jake muttered. He had known the whole story even before he had gotten involved with Liz some weeks ago. He turned towards Mark to face him.

„And I am damn serious about this, you´ve got to believe me that. I mean, I know what you were talking about before...my last relationships were a mess, every single one, I admit that. Honestly speaking, I think I have known that every time from the beginning. But this feels...I don´t know...it just feels right."

„Just try not to make any mistakes, man", Mark warned him quietly.

Jake nodded, knowing that this was the closest thing to approval he would be able to get.

„Where did you meet her?" Jake asked after another moment.

„At work."

„She´s wrestling ?"

Mark grinned.

„No. She´s part of the medical team. She´s a physiotherapist."

„You seduced your physiotherapist ?" Jake inquired. „Or did she seduce you ? Nice thought, big Undertaker sexually harassed at work..."

„You´re so full of shit, you know that ?" Mark inquired.

„Come on!"

Jake slapped the much taller friend on the shoulder.

„Not that you wouldn´t deserve it!" he added.

XXX

Later that night when they made their way back to where they had parked the bike, Mark felt tired, but very relaxed as well. It had been good to come here, good to spend some time with Jake and some other friends. And even if he still couldn´t really approve of Jake and his sister getting involved with each other, it had also been good to see her that cheerful.

They had reached the bike and getting onto it, he turned his head to look at Jade.

„Come here", he demanded lowly, taking her carefully by the arm.

„What you´re up to ?" she asked, having her question answered by deeds instead of words. She made a small sound of surprise the moment he simply lifted her to his lap.

Some minutes of making out later, Jade chuckled softly in his arms.

„What ?" he asked.

„Ain´t we too old to make out here in the dark ?"

He thought for a moment about her words, then shrugged. Being reminded of Jake´s words from before, he found that it simply felt right and that it simply was what he wanted to do right at that moment. Right here and then, they were for once not the athlete and the physio, not the WWE superstar and the staff member. For once, they were not forced to hide. For the time being, they were simply two newly enarmoured who had finally found themselves with some time on their hands to spend it together. He couldn´t find something wrong about that.

He kissed her again, taking his time.

„Feels wrong to you ?" he asked after that.

He couldn´t see her grin in the dark, but interpreted the small sound of amusement and approval she gave correctly.

„Feels damn good!" she whispered.

* * *

_Please give me your opinion._


	10. Devil alcohol

_Hey there and thanks for the reviews! For all who missed that so far - I wrote a lot of history and character stuff by now, but that will have to wait until the end of the night ..._

* * *

Later that night, Jade entered the bedroom behind him, almost hesitantly closing the double doors behind her.

Mark had walked over to the bed and was busy unbuttoning his shirt. He observed Jade meanwhile, who was still standing right in front of the doors. He was still not over watching her taking a bottle of Bourbon from him a minute ago to take two mouths full right out of the almost empty bottle instead of waiting for him to get her a glass. He wondered if the few drinks she had had with Liz before were the only reason for her strange behavior.

„What ?" he asked after a moment, wondering about her peculiar posture.

She didn´t answer immediately, watching him stripping off the shirt. It didn´t matter how often she had seen him half-naked before or how often she had treated him. She had admittedly appreciated the sight of his bare chest and shoulders before, but back then, she would never have believed that she would ever get to enjoy the sight outside work.

She would never have believed to get that close to him this way.

Jade was reminded of Jake calling him a grumpy bastard before. Recalling the insult made a small smile appear on her face. He was way more laid-back and polite than the company wanted to make people believe, but his height and built alone were enough to make people think twice about confronting him in any way. He had become used to play with his image, but it was not all just show. A part of it was definitely purely Mark and the lifestyle he had chosen and Jade appreciated every bad-ass looking inch of him.

„Are you going to spend the night over there or are you going to come to bed with me ?" he asked after another minute, still not sure what to make of her unusual behaviour.

Jade licked her lips for a moment, looking as if she was considering his words.

When she neither answered nor moved, he stopped in his doings, intrigued.

She finally pushed herself of the doors and crossed the distance between them slowly, stopping right in front of him.

„Was a damn long day, huh ?" he muttered.

„And a very good night so far", she agreed quietly, reaching for the buckle of his belt.

He let her proceed, running his hands slowly through her hair. She was right. The evening had been great. It had been good to watch Jade get along fine with Jake and Liz from the first moment on. If Jade had taken offence by Liz´ behaviour earlier that night, and Mark would have bet that she had done so at least during the first few minutes, she hadn´t showed it for a second. For the rest of the evening, they had been chatting between the gigs of the different bands and Mark could tell that Liz liked her. At some point, with Jade out of earshot for a moment, his younger sister had excitedly congratulated Mark for having finally managed to find himself a woman who wasn´t a dead boring annoying barbie girl. The surprise and approval on the faces of the friends he had met there at her sight hadn´t escaped him neither.

He let her finish the task of undressing him, then moved to do the same for her, but she didn´t allow him to do so. Instead, already bare-footed, she got quickly rid of her trousers herself, then put her palms against his massive chest and pushed.

She was aware of the fact that she usually wouldn´t have been able to even make him sway. But he followed her unspoken request and took a step backwards, taking her with him down to the bed.

She climbed on top of him, looking into his eyes for a long moment. Then she turned her head to glance hesitantly at the still switched on lamp on the nightstand. Her gaze returning to him, she pulled her shirt over her head.

„Come on", he mumbled. „Let´s see if I can make up for some of today´s troubles."

He forced her carefully into a deep kiss.

When she retreated to breathe, she did it with a surprisingly vile curse.

„Who the hell allowed you to swear like that in my bed ?" he asked lowly, grinning.

„You´re the only one allowed to swear in your bed ?" she whispered.

„Damn right."

He slid his hands down her back and she slightly arched her back under his touch.

„If you wanna use your mouth in here, find a better way to do it!" he added after a moment.

Her cheeks reddened softly. Suddenly, he noticed that peculiar expression from before back on her face.

She put her hands down to the bed left and right to his face and bent forward.

„What the hell are you up to ?" he asked quietly, still holding eye contact.

„You told me to find a better way to use my mouth in here, didn´t you ?"

Mark narrowed his eyes, slightly tilting his head.

She bit her lip for a moment, then smiled when he didn´t answer.

„So, shut yours now", she suggested.

He was up to reply to that, but she put her a finger over his lips, softly shaking her head.

„Sh", she whispered. „Cut it."

He brought his hands to her back and into her hair, but she reached for them and made him drop them to the mattress.

„Hands off", she whispered.

Mark watched her, wondering what had gotten into that girl. She had never allowed him to undress her with the lights still switched on so far and she had barely been able to look him in the eyes after making love. Her sudden demand to make the rules at his own bedroom came definitely as a surprise.

In the little while following, Mark had to find out that the still small number of shared nights had obviously been enough to leave him completely at her mercy now. Roaming his body with her lips and hands, she seemed to know every spot, every touch that would slowly drive him crazy.

She had started slowly by following the line of his jaw with her mouth, placing soft kisses there and along his neck, knowing that it would cause goosebumps on his side. She followed the line of his neck down to his shoulder and along his collarbone, her hands roaming his upper body. She made her way further down south, softly licking his nipples while she carefully used her nails to caress his sensitive sides.

Mark closed his eyes with a low grunt the moment she flicked her tongue against him. He had known before that she had magic hands, but combined with what she was doing to him with her mouth, she left him stunned and breathless.

His hands found their way into her hair again, but it only made her stop what she had been doing to force them off again.

„Don´t", she whispered, putting them down to his sides and covering them with her own for a moment. Then she returned to her former doings, slowly intensifying her efforts.

It was a hard thing to endure the torture without being allowed to touch her and being able to inflict some torture on her as well. On the other hand, it had been way too long since he had gotten such a treatment and he was not going to make her stop again.

He groaned the moment she followed the length of him with her tongue, her piercing causing an additional thrill. She put a small hand to his stomach when she felt him move beneath her, silently asking him to hold his horses, changing her rhythm the moment she felt him adapt to it.

Jade glanced over him the moment she felt his climax drawing closer. She didn´t think of herself as very experienced in bed and had doubted if she would be able to return some of his former favors. But from what she saw, there hadn´t been reason to worry.

Still, it was a somehow unsettling thought and sight to have a man of his built and strength defenseless at her mercy, even if out of his free will.

It didn´t take much more to take him to his relief and he came with a low outcry.

Still on his back and the sensation of his relief slowly subsiding, he reached for her, pulling her up to him to rest right next to him, then rolled to the side to be able to kiss her. He held her close, his face burried in her hair while his breathing steadily slowed down. She could tell that she had left him in delight, but at the same time in kind of a very vulnerable state. It was as hard as exciting to witness, even more knowing that it had been her alone taking him there. It was one thing for her to make love with the both of them advancing at the same pace. It was a completely different thing to pleasure him that way, taking out his mind and will like that.

The way he was longing for her and her touch right now, even with the strongest sensation over left her amazed. With Mark only slowly recovering from her unexpeced attack, she allowed herself to dwell on that feeling.

Mark on his side was seriously wondering if he had picked up the right girl that night or probably her naughty twin sister. For some reason, he didn´t believe that her behaviour had been changed by devil alcohol alone. The thought of her demanding a drink earlier, obviously intending to give herself some additional liquid courage for the things to come, left him amused, but also baffled. She had had some drinks with Liz during the concert, but it had been three or four over several hours. She had probably been slightly tipsy, but sure as hell not really drunk.

He had to realize again that the girl was full of damn surprises for someone he had known so many years.

Slowly overcoming the first exhaustion, he was also wondering if she was up for more.

XXX

A little while later, Mark withdrew from a long kiss. She had wrapped her arms around his neck and her legs around his, craving for skin contact. He caressed her cheek, brushing the mass of dark hair out of her face again in the process. Even with that damn silence of her, he could tell that she wasn´t far from going wild.

She didn´t loosen her embrace when he moved to bring her back down to the sheets to pin her there. She only tried to pull him closer, but he wasn´t going to let her have her way right now. She was in for some payback before he would do her, that much was for sure.

Still pinning her with one large hand, he roamed her body with his mouth. She had turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, her face half burried in the pillows. He was tempted to tell her to look at him, but didn´t do it. With her having already done a first step by not insisting on switching off the light before that night, he wouldn´t push her. At least not that way.

The moment he sat up, slightly changing position on the bed, she opened her eyes to glance at him. If she was disappointed that he hadn´t made his way further south than her belly button, she didn´t show it. But the moment he bent over to kiss her on the mouth, she made her move.

Her wild kissing attack took him completely by surprise. Arching her back and pushing herself off the mattress, she pressed herself with all might possible against him, flinging her arms around his neck. Then, bringing her legs around his waist, she suddenly used all of her comparatively small weight to pull him down to her. The moment he tried to put his hands down to the mattress to lift himself up a little, she closed her hands entangled in his hair to fists. It caused Mark to grunt in surprise at her demanding behaviour. Feeling him giving up on the idea, she she one hand slip out of his hair and down his chest and belly. She moved slightly beneath him and before he had even gotten a chance to keep her from it, she had him already burrying himself inside of her.

A small cry escaped her at the rushed invasion. He could feel the jolt it had sent running through her whole body. She had already been aroused before but he wasn´t sure if she had been ready for that. As much as she seemed to have wanted it, as painful had it probably been for her and he was not still not sure up to which degree of pain she was willing to go.

With his plans overthrown once more, he obliged her for the time being. He had moved careful inside of her at first, but she made it quickly clear that she had no use for a too gentle treatment.

He brought one arm around her thigh to get a better hold of her, but wasn´t contented with that. Deciding on the spur of the moment, he rolled to his back, taking her with him. He had expected her to complain about him bringing her on top of him that way, but she didn´t. She only let her hands wander over his shoulders and half down his arms, lowering her head to softly suck at his nipples while she slowly moved her hips. The look she threw him the moment she glanced up to him made him suddenly take his hands out of her hair to get a grip on her hips, driving himself harder into her. She straightened up, putting her palms to his chest to support herself. Watching her trying to oppose him made him only growl and quickening their pace.

His climax hit with a last violent thrust and made both of them cry out.

With the blast of his release slowly wearing off, he panted hard and turned to the side, taking Jade with him once again.

„Next time you´re in such dire need for something - just tell me", he told her the moment he found himself able to speak again. With his mind offline, he realized belatedly that she had completely screwed his plans for her again.

„Right now, I´m only in dire need for a shower", she mumbled.

„I´m in need for a drink", he muttered. „So go ahead. Leave the door open and I´ll join you."

XXX

Following her to the bathroom a minute later, it was for once him deciding to switch the lights off, the bright light making him squint after he had made his way down to the kitchen and back in the dark.

She made a small sound of surprise at that, but didn´t complain any further about it when he joined her under the water.

She sank into his arms and let her head rest against his chest for a minute with the hot water streaming down on them. She had no idea how late or early it was by now, but she had reached a point at which she didn´t feel the fatigue anymore, her focus completely on him.

The moment they had finally had to say goodbye after that first weekend, she had felt all weird about it and about the days to come. He had obviously shared that feeling. At the gloomy expression suddenly showing on her face, he had pulled her close, for once not even for a kiss, just for an embrace, simply to hold her for another minute.

It had Jade made realize with all might how badly she had been longing for a simple thing like that. That long silent moment had allowed her to listen in not just on her own feelings, but on the feeling of the two of them.

When they managed to steal some minutes for themselves during work afterwards, there had usually not been that much talk. There were not a lot of things they would have wanted to discuss in that short amount of time anyway.

But especially if they hadn´t seen each other for a day or two, he had eyed her up, mustered her, took her in to see if she was fine or sore or sad. It had been exactly what had made him state the obvious some six weeks ago at the locker room with Shawn around. He had taken one serious look at her instead of only a glace, had taken her whole appearance in and realized how tired she looked. It had been such a small and simple thing to do, but she had still felt that he had been the first and only one that night who had actually done it.

Jade had actually always had a weakness for men giving a woman a classy compliment and liked the idea of being courted attentively by the man she was dating. But she had nevertheless fallen for Mark the moment she had realized that the small things he did affected her way more than all the flattery by simply caring about her.

She had known before that he was neither the guy for small talk nor for endless discussions. Therefore, she had never expected him to be the guy for a lot of sweet talk or compliments either and she seemed to have been right about that. Instead, she had quickly come to appreciate these private moments. Enjoying quietly that the silence between them never felt awkward, she wouldn´t have wanted to waste that moments on empty phrases.

„Turn around", he whispered after another minute, his words bringing her back from her trance-like state to the real world. He reached in the dark for the shower gel and she squealed softly the moment the cool fluid made contact with her skin.

He took his time with her and at the time he was done washing her, she pressed her back against his chest, a soft moan escaping her under his touch.

Mark bit his tongue for a second, wondering if she had even realized it.

He let one hand rest on her belly to steady her, then let the fingers of his free hand slip down to her center.

The intimate touch caused another moan.

Mark took a deep breath, a grin appearing on his face in the darkness.

Never stopping to caress her, he leaned in on her to whisper in her ear.

„You need another go ?"

XXX

Jade landed in the middle of the already ruffled bed, soaking blankets and sheets. He hadn´t granted her the time to dry up, neither had he. He followed suit, pinning her there with his body while reaching for the bottle of Bourbon he had brought from the kitchen.

He opened it and tilted it just enough to make a small amount of the beverage moisten her lips, then bent forward to kiss her. She gave a low sound of surprise the moment he straightened up again to pour more of the Bourbon down on her body in a straight line, following it with his mouth.

She squealed softly the moment he flicked his tongue against her most intimate spot, arching her back to meet his touch, finding herself completely at his mercy this time. He continued with the mind-blowing treatment for some more moments, only to break away from her when he felt her trying to regain mastery again.

„You had your way twice, baby", he told her after a soft kiss. „It´s my turn."

She impatiently watched him putting the bottle back to the nightstand, her eyes wide with anticipation. The moment she tried to sit up to pull him closer again, he kept her from it, only to pin her down again.

Then he hesitated.

„This is gonna get rough", he said. It was a statement, nothing more, nothing less.

She held his gaze. Then she nodded silent approval.

With the beginning of a smirk on his face, he clenched his hand and hit the light switch.

After she had left him suspended in the dark over the last few weeks, this would be even better if she wasn´t able to see things coming.

* * *

_Liked it ? Then gimme a :-) !_


	11. Rainy morning

_Short chapter, but I didn´t want to wait any longer with publishing it...so part two of that scene will be in the next chapter, hope you don´t mind :-) _

_Thanks for your reviews!_

* * *

The next morning, it was raining.

Mark drifted slowly from sleep to consciousness, only to find Jade sound asleep in his arm.

He had pushed her hard the night before, had driven her deliberately up to breaking point and by that, into exhaustion. He hadn´t granted her the chance to get her way this time, his grip on her firm, every thrust of his fierce.

Even as sensitive as their former encounter had left her, breaking her reserve still had turned out to be hard. But condemned to passivity by him as she had been, he had finally felt her defensive walls crumble.

Despite all his intentions, he had made it first over the edge. But the sensation of him coming hard into her made her cry out and she had followed hard on him.

The explosion of feelings had been too much to for her to bear.

With the mind-blasting eruption wearing off, tears of relief had broken their way through. He had held her close, still in a slightly dazed state himself, running his fingers again and again through her hair. If his assumptions had been right, this had been way overdue. And even if he had had a hard time enduring it, he hadn´t tried to make her stop crying. It had seemed wiser to him to let the tears flow, to allow her to get through with the turmoil instead of only smothering it.

But to his dismay, her sobbing had still become stronger. It had seemed that the hard-won relief had raised a lot more to the surface.

She had broken down in his arms, unable to hold back. It had been the last thing she had wanted, he could tell, but there had been nothing she could have done to stop it. It had taken a long time until she had become quieter again and the tears had subsided, and even longer until she had finally fallen asleep.

Moving carefully to avoid waking her, he pulled the blanket that only half covered her up to her shoulder. Not able to withstand the temptation, he softly caressed her cheek for a moment, brushing the dark her out of her face in the process. His touch made her move slightly and he withdrew his hand, cursing himself. He wasn´t intending to wake her, but for some reason, he hadn´t been able to resist, as if he had to see if she was real.

Using the quiet moment to recall the last few weeks, he was left amazed by how things had developped.

The difference between Jade and Melissa could not have been bigger. Melissa had been succesfully working as a model until the day she had been involved in a bad car accident, breaking her leg and hip, and she and Mark had met subsequently during his own injury lay-off. Aware of the fact that they came from two completely different worlds, but nevertheless strongly fascinated by each other, they had quickly realized that they had a lot of things in common. First of all that they both were workaholics and as addicted as dedicated to both their jobs, accepting therefore that they had to bring their whole life and love-life as well as all the other things affected by their jobs in line with their working schedules. They had made the best out of their healing processes which had temporarily slowed down the pace of both their lives and had spent a lot of time together to get to know each other better.

The memory of how strong they had felt for each other back then still made his heart ache sometimes. They had felt like allies on enemy turf and when it had finally been time to return to work, they had make a pact. It had been the two of them against the rest of the world, the two of them against all odds and for a while, they had both firmly believed that they could prove all the sceptics wrong.

Things had at least for Mark gone well. He had gotten the chance to go on right where he had left and constantly upwards. Melissa had had to struggle harder, the competition stronger than ever before in her business, but she had made it. But then, after the most successful year of her career, her star suddenly started to sink without warning when the greatest deal she had ever made had suddenly been off. It had eaten her up, even more than her struggle for perfectionism had done before. Thinking about it in the aftermath, to Mark, that incident still marked the beginning of the end for their relationship.

After a two-year-relationship and another two years of marriage, it had all been over. Things had ended not with a punch to the face, but with a mean low blow for Mark.

He knew that his sister and Jake hadn´t meant to hurt his feelings with their remarks the night before, sardonically comparing Jade to his ex-wife. He had in fact not taken offence. Regarding how bad things had always been between Liz and Melissa, Liz´ jibing had been rather polite. And nothing she and Jake had told him had actually been new to him.

Jade was nothing like Mel, not from her outer appearance, not regarding her ways. On their way home the night before, with Jade´s small and warm form right behind him, softly clinging to him, Mark had had to realize that he would never have been able to spend an evening like that with Melissa, not even in the beginning.

Not being into that kind kind of music anyway, Melissa would never have accompanied him to that concert the night before, not to do Mark a favor and definitely not to spend an evening with him and his friends. She had never taken it well when he had had to split his attention between her and somebody else and she wouldn´t even have thought about leaving the house dressed the casual way Jade had been dressed the night before. And if she had been forced to do so for some reason, she would have punched the first paparazzi or fan to recognize her right in the face and sued him to death for trying to take a picture. Then again, nobody would probably have recognized her at all if she had went out dressed that way after she had worked so hard for so many years on her image as the Miss Perfect of her business.

With her model career stagnating, Melissa had become even more obsessed with giving an immaculate performance. From that point on, everything she did had to have been one thousand percent. Nothing she did had happened not at least partially for business purposes. She might have had an understanding for Mark´s dedication to his work, but in the end, she had used even his dedication for her own purposes, only to spit on the whole wrestling business the moment things didn´t go as she had planned.

The bitter thing about all that was that Mark still remembered the person behind that fassade, the silently joyful girl loving the job she was doing. Loving him. But the occasions on which he had been allowed to get a glimpse at that girl had become rarer and rarer and in the end, he hadn´t been able to see her at all under all the layers of onforced perfectionism. The woman he had finally caught in the act with some other guy in his own bed behind the high and thick walls of the fortress they had called home had seemed to be nothing more than the hollow shell of the one he had once fallen in love with.

Jade came again from a different world than Mel, from a normal world, with a normal job and a normal life. From what he could tell, she was just herself. There was no pretense about her ways or looks or about who she really was and there was no need for it.

She obviously liked her job and in his opinion, she was very good at it, not only regarding how she dealt with her patients health issues, but also regarding how she dealt with those people themselves. She had been around for years, all the inconveniences of her job obviously not bothering her enough to make her look for another employment. He knew that she was usually rather reserved, but would stand her ground when was she was of a different opinion than the medics and trainers around. Where unexpected things to happen had driven the control freak Melissa crazy, they didn´t shake Jade. They were at the contrary part of her daily work and she was used to step into a situation, quickly evaluate it and take action.

She actually seemed to be kind of resistant to the sometimes nerve-wracking chaos at work. It had probably been that quietly good-humored demeanor she was working with, that serenity that had peaked his interest in the first place.

For some reason, he had credited that serenity to her being equally well-established in her job and in her private life until he had found out that at least the latter was actually not the case. The fact that her private life had obviously not been that calm at all lately without her letting that affect her work impressed him only more.

Jade moved right next to him, interrupting his thinkings by turning half to her belly, exposing the tattoo on her back by that. The sight of the unfinished female demon made a grin appear on his face. He wondered for a moment if she had any idea how much that lady demon, usually hidden under her clothes, matched her. There was another female demon usually hidden underneath her clothes, one he had not been aware of in the beginning, but one he definitely liked.


	12. Confessions

_Some more history...it took quite a while for me to hit the right tone here...but now it was time to publish it...otherwise I won´t publish it at all, I guess, so here it is - hope you like it! _

* * *

Jade liked rainy mornings, at least the ones she could spend listening to the sound of the raindrops hitting the windows while staying in bed for a little longer than usual. But this rainy morning, she woke experiencing an unusual mixture of feelings that kept her occupied. There was a light headache and her eyes were burning. Thinking about it, she realized that her whole body felt as if she had been in a bad fight the night before and one that she hadn´t won. On the other hand, she could not remember when she had felt that relaxed for the last time, despite the damage reports coming in from different parts of her body.

She had woken alone. A look at the clock on the nightstand showed that it was about nine - from what she knew about him by now, an hour way too late for him to be found still in bed. She finally sat up in the bed, glancing around. There was a faint odor of Bourbon coming from the ruffled sheets around her, the memories connected with that causing a wave of heat to roll over her skin.

Jade allowed herself to let herself fall back into the pillows again. She enjoyed a silent moment of appreciation at the discovery that she was still obviously not too old for the mixture of sex, Bourbon and rock´n roll.

It was some sound from downstairs that eventually brought her back to reality.

Jade felt unsure about how Mark would react to her emotional outburst. If her weird behavior regarding intimacies had bothered him before, he had not complained about that so far. But things had never gotten out of control as they had done the night before. By now, she was scared that she had possibly not only irritated him, but that she would probably drive him away in the end if she did not manage to get a grip on her feelings soon.

In the end, she decided cowardly to go for a shower first when she had finally managed to get up, only to grow more and more desperate every minute.

On her way down later on, she threw a short glance into the mirror at the hall. Not able to look into the mirror at the bathroom upstairs, it was the first time that morning that she looked into one.

„Damn", she muttered at the sight of her puffy eyes.

Mark glanced over to her when she entered the kitchen.

„I should probably do something about the mirror at the bathroom, huh ?"

Joining him, she shook her head.

„Probably better not", she mumbled.

He laughed at her frustrated tone.

„Are you alright ?"

The cautious tone he had asked the question in made her cock her eyebrows. A small smile appeared on her face at the same time.

„I am more than alright", she answered honestly after a moment.

„You´re sure ?" he asked after a moment.

This time, it took Jade a moment as well to answer him. He was probably not the man to show a lot of emotions all too clearly, but his concern was still obvious to her. Again it had only been a small thing, three small words, but she knew that it was not a rhethorical question on his side, none that he would have wanted her to answer with ´yes` only anyway.

„I´m fine - even If I probably don´t look like it this morning", she added after a moment, unable to suppress the self-ironic comment. „And I am sorry."

It was Mark´s turn to cock his eyebrows.

„´bout what ?" he asked.

„About the end of last night", she answered hesitantly, absent-mindedly accepting a cup of coffee from him. Staring down into the dark steaming liquid offered her another chance to evade his gaze.

„And I thought you were going to apologize for savaging me", he commented drily, only to watch her blush like he had never seen her doing before. She only looked helplessly up to the ceiling, cursing him silently for bringing that up.

He eyed her up for a moment, then frowned.

„Gimme that back", he ordered suddenly, taking the mug out of her hand to put it away, only to reach for her and make her sit on the counter.

„You´re doing it again", he informed her.

„Doing what ?" she asked, glancing past him and over to the open door leading to the garden.

„You´re not looking me in the eye."

She didn´t deny that. There would have been no use to do so.

„Why not ?" he pressed her softly.

He waited patiently for her to answer while she realized that there was no way - and probably no use - to get out of this without answering him this time.

„I am embaressed", she muttered. „That´s why."

„If this is about us..."

„This is - not - about us!" she interrupted him firmly.

„If I did anything..."

„Cut it!" she interrupted him again. „This is not your fault!"

She sighed.

„It´s just my crazy mind, okay ?"

She tried to slip down from the counter, but he held her carefully back.

„Let me ask you something else", he suggested after a moment when she didn´t go on. „Has this anything to do with this idiot of an ex-boyfriend of yours ?"

Jade´s shoulders sagged visibly at his question while she kept staring into nowhere.

„I really don´t wanna talk about this", she told him. „´cause I have no idea how or if I can explain it to you."

He placed a kiss on her temple, his beard tickling her softly.

„See, something is obviously bothering you", he said then. „And I´d bet that it is at least partly this freak ´stopping by` again. But if you don´t wanna talk about it, let me tell you something. I don´t need you to be in high spirits all the time, alright ? I don´t need you to look neat as a pin after three hours of sleep. And I don´t want you to put a show up for me or to pretend to be cheerful when you´re actually sad or sick or angry. I can take it, believe me."

„Actually, I don´t want you to pretend about anything ever at all",he muttered, suddenly looking a bit gloomy. „I had that once and I certainly don´t need it again."

Forgetting about her own worries for a moment, Jade eyed him up. It was the first time that he had ever brought his ex-wife up himself in her presence, even if he hadn´t named her explicitly.

„Remember when you asked me about my tattoo", she asked after a moment, making an effort.

He nodded.

„I had it made about a year ago", she went on. „I had just gotten over Josh breaking up with me. I had moved to a nice place back then, from the first apartment I had just rented because I had to find something new very quickly when we parted. I had some money to spare and I had wanted to have it done for for years. I have to admit that, when the guy finally got to work, I _had_ second thoughts for a moment."

Mark grinned. He had an idea about the feeling.

„Well, anyway, I had the first session just a day or two before Gavin, being back from New York, suddenly showed up at my doorsill that night. I was completely taken by surprise and when he asked me if he could stay for some days, for some reason, I agreed. He saw the tattoo the next day..."

She broke off, softly shaking her head.

„You know, Gavin likes to give the tough business guy and Prince Charming and stuff, but he´s damn unsure of himself. That again makes him come up with this arrogance of his! It simply drove me crazy at the time before we broke up. We had grown up together, had spent all this time together, and still, we suddenly found ourselves in completely different situations back then. He was still not satisfied even after finishing studying and kept telling me that I could do better, but I was happy with my job, contented about how things were going for me. He was livid when he lost this first job because and he hated having to live on my money."

She exhaled.

„And we had reached a point at which I didn´t want to be touched by him anymore in _any_ way. Well, some day, we had another fight about the money. He freaked out and said a lot of nasty things. I had to leave that night for work and he told me to go and have some fun with all my glorious friends at work and that he would be better of without me anyway."

Jade sighed.

„I mean, you saw him. He´s not the athlethic guy. He always kind of hated how everything back at my parents´ house was about sports in some way, with my uncle and dad boxing and my cousin getting into mixed martial arts stuff later on. After that fight, when I came back after two weeks, he came up with some kind of, I don´t know, weird Casanova thing to apologize. I had worked for two weeks straight and I was sick - what he would have known if he hadn´t refused to talk to me for days before! I mean, as I said...he made quite an effort. He had cleaned up the place, he had prepared dinner and I could tell that he had a very bad conscience...but when he tried to _seduce_ me, pretending to be someone I so damn well knew he wasn´t...I mean, I have known this guy ever since and this was just the most ridiculous thing he´d ever come up with. It was simply too much. I told him that I couldn´t go through with that. It was just impossible. I mean, if I had just met him, I would probably have believed the whole show...whatever...I was done with him, and I told him that I wanted to split. I was tired of him telling me to throw everything overboard and do something else. I was tired of his arrogance, I was admittedly tired of his frustration, and I was done with his damn lovey-dovey vanilla sex. I just couldn´t stand him even looking at me that way. He did accuse me of going to bed with at least one of my colleagues that night, it´s true, but he also blamed me for the two of us failing ´cause in his opinion, I was giving all what he had always been looking for, all that he would have needed, to the people I was working with - for money. As mad as this may sound, I think _that_ is why he keeps calling me a whore. It probably started with finding myself somebody else to have sex with, but it´s not what it all is about! He said that I would only keep that job to be able to spend so much time somewhere else and because I thought of him as a burden."

She shook her head.

„He was damn alone at that time, it´s true. There were not many of his friends left back then and he had given up on most of his hobbies to get his study done. I guess he had always hated the fact of me working with all these guys and the idea that I could be friends with my colleagues and some of the guys as well...but God, I was so done with that shit."

Mark shifted his weight, frowning.

„But he wasn´t", he concluded.

Jade nodded, sighing.

„Right. He wasn´t. And I think he still isn´t."

He watched her cautiously for a moment.

„You know, it still doesn´t explain..."

„Why I find it easier to undress with the lights out ?" she asked. „Or why I just can´t let go ?"

She ran a hand through her hair, thinking about how to explain herself.

„You know, Gavin has always had a way with words..."

She lowered her glance.

„Well, at some point before, we had tried to talk about our...problems. And damn, have you ever tried to explain to somebody that the things he´s doing to you in bed don´t turn you on the slightest bit any more, not to speak of trying to explain _why_ ? But he kept asking me for reasons_ - _not that that would have changed anything - but so I tried."

She closed her eyes for a moment before she went on.

„I did my very best not to hurt his feelings. I didn´t mean to hurt his damn pride. I mean it´s nobody´s fault that we are not into the same things in bed! But he took it damn personal and he started to jibe at me...it have always been only small comments, one here, one there...things became worse every day...and me refusing to get through with Casanova - it was kind of the final straw."

Jade sighed.

„I don´t know how to explain this to you, but do you know that ?" she asked. „When someone who knows you inside out says something mean that really goes under your skin ? Something you actually know is not true, but you can simply not get it out of your head and you´re reminded of it over and over again every time you´re getting into a related situation ?"

„Well, what did he tell you ?"

Jade shook her head, blushing again.

„He said a lot of things and I am _never ever_ going to repeat themto anyone."

„What about that other guy, Josh ?" he inquired. „There was no problem ?"

Jade smiled.

„No. Actually, there was no problem."

„Why´s that ?" he wanted to know, curious by now.

„You know, Josh...o damn, don´t get me wrong...he´s a great guy. He´s honest, reliable, kind of everything a woman could wish for...I know how this may sound to you, but...he´s simply not the sharpest tool in the box."

„Wait a second", Mark said, reaching for his own coffee. „You´re telling me that there was no problem to let him look at you ´cause he´s dumb ?"

She smiled at this question.

„You know, I don´t know why I´m telling you this, but anyway - he and I went to bed together the night we first met. He´s a truckdriver and he fitted all the clichés - big, strong, bad-ass looking...damn, I had never went straight to bed with a guy before and let me put it like this - he made short work and he did a very good job, and after that, I could be damn sure that he had no problem with however I behaved in bed. But this ´problem` wasn´t that kind of a problem back then anywayway, admittedly."

A small smile appeared on Mark´s face.

„You had never had a one night stand before and you went straight to bed with some big brute ? Have you probably been drunk back then ?" he asked, his grin broadening at the bashful expression on her face.

To his surprise, he was rewarded for it by being nudged painfully right into the chest.

„Stop making fun of me, I mean it! And dammit, yes, I was drunk! At least drunk enough to forget about all my inhibitions, but _not_ drunk enough to have went blank. See, Josh is a fine guy. Unfortunately, I was not the only one to realize that I was smarter than him. And there were certain people around me, certain friends and family members, who kept pointing that out to me and making fun of him. You know, he was hard-working, he was a man of principles, he was attentive - it was just not fair. Gavin had always taken a mischievous pleasure in mocking me about the ´lunk` I had found myself. When he was back from New York, he had obviously heard about Josh and me at home and I guess it´s also how he had found out about my new address. You know, he was nice the first night when he arrived and I was stupid enough to buy it. But he couldn´t hide for very long how much he enjoyed the fact that I, the woman stupid enough to leave _him, _had been abandoned by the ´oaf`! And before I knew it, we were back to the old shit. The jibing, the bitter comments - it was all there."

„Why the hell did you offer the guy to stay at your place in the first place ?"

„I didn´t offer it to him, he asked me, and for the old times´ sake, I didn´t say no. I mean, he was nice enough - for the first two days."

She took another sip of her coffe.

„Then he saw the tattoo."

„He didn´t like it ?"

Jade made a small bitter sound.

„He called the whole idea ridiculous, the realization slapdash and me stupid for ruining my body with something like that, just to impress ´some other idiot at work`."

Mark suddenly believed to know where this would lead.

„Let me guess - you gave him the money you had saved to have it done."

Jade nodded.

„Yeah. At least the rest of it. He said he would give it back to me as soon as he´d find another job."

„But he never did."

„You know, I really don´t care about the damn money! But he tried to hit on me..._that_ was weird! I didn´t want that but he did not get that into his head. And then I had some days off and spent them with Lita and Matt and Jeff at their place to see a concert there. I mean, we went to that concert and that was it - you know that me and Jeff have nothing going on, we´re just friends - but Gavin freaked out completely. We had another fight and I kicked him out and the next time I returned home after a week on the road, he had kind of broken into the place and stayed there until I returned. It was back then that I suspected for the first time that he was doing some kind of drugs."

„What did you do ?"

„I tried to talk to him. When it did not work and I returned another time to find the whole place a mess and all my money gone, I called the police, but they couldn´t do much. Shortly after that, I decided to move. But as you already stated, that didn´t do the trick. I´ll really have to think of something. The whole thing is driving me crazy."

Mark frowned, musing that the situation with her ex-boyfriend had surely been what had caused most of that tension that had made her break down the night before.

„Mind if I ask what happened to you and your trucker, what was his name ?"

„Josh", she answered with a small smile. „As I already said, he found himself somebody else. He had always wanted to have a family and he fell in love with the girl serving him his after work beer every night at his favorite bar when I wasn´t at home to do it. That was it. You know, thinking about it, it probably served me right. For some reason, I always thought that if we would ever gonna break up, it would be me leaving him. Pride will have a fall they say. And call me naive, but he is actually such a sincere character that I believed him when he said that he hadn´t slept with her because he didn´t want to get involved with her behind my back. I´d still bet it was true."

She sighed.

„So - that´s it! The story of my life."

„You do realize that infamous Gavin only told you all that shit to keep you away from any other guy after he had lost you, don´t ya ?"

She sniffed.

„I guess I do."

„But your boy has done a really good job, hasn´t he ?" Mark commented grumpily. „That idiot really got into your head."

„Yeah", she admitted gloomily. „ And fyi - he´s not ´my boy` anymore!" she corrected him sarcastically.

He ran his fingers through her hair, becoming serious.

„Honestly, baby, you have to get that freak and the nonsense he´s talking out of your head!"

„I know", she muttered. „It´s just not that easy."

„So, what´s the conclusion for me to draw here ?" he asked then, puttings his hand down to the counter right and left from her. „That I´ll have have to make you drunk every time to get the real girl ´cause I am too smart to be allowed to look at you ?"

Without a warning, she tried to escape him. But she made it only down from the counter before he caught her in a tight embrace with her back to his chest.

„Or was it just that I didn´t work you over hard enough before to make you find your tongue again ?" he inquired drily.

For some moments, Jade kept silent, trying to overcome her embarassment.

When she finally spoke, Mark didn´t trust his ears.

„Have you ever had a girl with a tongue piercing go down on you before ?" she asked.

„No ?" she inquired when he didn´t answer, glad that the way he still held her did not allow any eye contact anyway. „Well, if you´re into that, you´d better stop embarassing me now, you know, ´cause you´ll probably never have that again otherwise."

To her surprise, he chuckled.

„I am wondering", he said then quietly. „If I make you turn around and look at me now, will you repeat what you just said or can you only spill that smut when you´re not facing me ?"

She turned to him.

„You´re an evil man, you know that ?"

He grinned.

„Actually - I do."

She tried to turn on her own accord in his embrace and he let her do so.

„I didn´t mean to bother you with all this", she confessed, suddenly becoming serious again. Feeling more and more attached to him, the fear to lose what they had just found had themselves had steadily grown with her affection.

„You don´t bother me, alright ? And promise me something, will you ?"

She looked up to him, feeling slightly scared that he would probably ask her to make a promise she wouldn´t be able to keep.

„If _I_ do ever do something that bothers you - be honest with me, alright ? I´m serious about that."

She nodded slowly.

„I think I can do that", she muttered.

The moment of silence following that was disturbed by her stomach rumbling protestingly. Raising her eyebrows, she put a hand to her belly. All the confessions had finally made her grow hungry.

„Want me to fix us some breakfast ?" she asked.

Mark only grinned, keeping it to himself that when he had gotten up, he had secretly hoped for her to suggest that.

XXX

When they had finished breakfast a while later on and were busy cleaning up the kitchen, Jade finally decided to ask him something she had been curious about for a while by now.

„Do you mind if I ask you what happened between you and..."

She broke off at the last second.

„´She who can´t be named` ?" he asked, helping her out. Jade put a hand down to his arm, feeling the sudden change in his mood.

„In case you _do_ mind..."

He didn´t stop what he was doing, only let his hand slide across her back on his way past her.

„It´s alright", he answered with a shrug. „And there´s no need to bite your tongue, you know. Or did you really think I don´t know people call her that ?"

Jade frowned. There had been the usual gossip when his and Melissa´s break-up had become known and some people had just not realized that they were overdoing things. It had led to Mark throwing an impressive tantrum at work, the only one she had ever witnessed, during which he had made it perfectly clear to everybody present that he wanted people to never ever mention Melissa´s name again in his presence.

„Well, did you really think that people would stop talking about her after you told them so firmly to never mention her name again in your presence ?" she asked back.

He shrugged again.

„No. In fact, I didn´t. To make a long story short, let´s just say she wasn´t as sincere as your ex-boyfriend in the end", he answered.

„She cheated on you ?"

Mark made a small bitter sound of confirmation.

„I managed to come home for her birthday without her knowing about it, only to find her with some freak in my own bed."

„Wow", Jade only said.

„What did you do ?" she asked after a moment.

„Haven´t you heard all about that at the locker room ?" he asked back. „I´d bet that you hear a lot you´re not supposed to anyway."

Jade grimassed. She had stopped to seriously listen to locker room gossip many years ago.

„Actually, I don´t give too much on locker room gossip", she replied drily. „And believe it or not, after your little tantrum back then, there were not many more rumors coming up. You gave me the chills, man, so much is for sure."

„You were there ?" he asked, surprised. He didn´t remember her being around when he had lost nerve with his colleagues back then.

„Yup. I was supposed to take care of John."

He growled lowly.

„Well, then you know how I felt", he mumbled.

She smiled.

„If you´re ever going to shout at me like that, I´ll simply die right where I stand", she mused. „_After_ wetting myself."

He stopped in front of her and brought his hands to her hips.

„I am not going to shout at you like that", he said. „I think I´ve never shouted like that again ever since anyway", he added, rubbing his chin for a moment.

„They really got on my nerves", he added. „But I regretted that later on. I should better have shouted at the one who would really have deserved it."

„You didn´t do that ?"

He shook his head, frowning.

„I couldn´t. I guess I wanted to. But I couldn´t."

Jade tried for a moment in vain to imagine what she would have done in his place.

„What _did_ you do ?" she asked after a moment, curiously, watching him refilling his mug.

He exhaled.

„I left."

„Just like that ?"

He only nodded.

„You still loved her, didn´t you ?"

He nodded again. Jade sighed, caressing his arm sympathetically. Even if she had not been confronted with the facts in that of all ways, she had nevertheless an idea about how it felt to have lost the person she loved to someone else.

„You know, I couldn´t have done anything to her, even if I had wanted to", he muttered. „I couldn´t even do something to the guy."

Mark tried to remember for a moment if he could recall any occasion on which Jade and Melissa might probably have met, but found that he couldn´t.

„Have you two ever met ?" he asked.

„Once", Jade answered. „That was the night when you were fighting Stone Cold, I guess, and she and Debra were supposed to have that cat fight."

Mark looked confused for a moment. There had been quite a number of occasions at which he and Steve Austin had faced each other.

„If you have problems recalling it", Jade helped him out with a small smile,"it was the night you ended up flat on your back outside the ring with half your spine displaced."

Now he grinned.

„Oh, _that_ night", he said, then chuckled.

Making one of her first appearances at a WWE show and not quite used to the risks of being around the ring with a match going on, Melissa had been accidentally knocked to her ass that night. The mishap had not been planned, but had kind of fitted the story and had only added to the tension that was supposed to built up between him and Steve back then. Nevertheless, where Melissa would usually have done everything for a perfect show in her own business, unplanned things were something she couldn´t handle and hated them therefore. Her outrage had only been partly play-acting and she had been livid when they had finally made it backstage. To make things worse, Mark had had to be treated thanks to some locked vertebrae. As a consequence, she had not gotten half the attention it would have needed to sooth her, neither from him nor from the people around them.

„You know, I was kind of worried that she wouldn´t want me of all people to treat you, but I got the impression that she did not even notice me", Jade mused.

„She most likely didn´t", Mark commented. „She was so livid for being embarassed on national TV like that when Steve knocked her off her feet..."

„She should have been happy", Jade commented with a shrug. „I mean, it fitted the whole story so nicely and I guess she did not really got hurt."

„Spoken like a true WWE employee", he answered with a grin. „And if she had really gotten hurt, believe me, no one would have been allowed to take care of anything else than her!"

„I understood that she wasn´t very happy in the wrestling business ?"

Mark snorted.

„She hated it. Not in the beginning. But right from that moment on when she felt forced to accept Vince´s offer to make some appearances with me."

„You know, I am sorry about that", Jade mumbled. „I mean, she must have known what the business means to you."

„Being driven out of her own business was eating her up", he stated. „I can´t blame her for that."

„I have to admit", Jade said after a moment,"that I always thought you two made a rather unusual couple."

This time, Mark laughed lowly.

„We didn´t make an unusual couple", he replied quietly. „We were a mismatch. I just didn´t see that."

She could tell that the fact still of being that mistaken about the whole thing still grieved him in a way. Having no idea how to react to that statement, she simply kept silent. His reaction made her want to embrace him, but for some reason, she mused that he would not want her pity.

„You know, it may have been kind of an unhealthy idea to deal with the whole matter when it all ended", he said then,"but I would have liked to burn the house, just burn it down to the ground with all it contained. Thinking about it nowadays, I should have give a damn about the money and should have done that."

Jade raised her eyebrows at him telling her about the rather radical idea. Thinking about it for a moment, she finally shrugged.

„I don´t think of that as such an unhealthy idea", she replied. „It would have been a rather unusual attempt to put all that behind yourself, granted. But if you would have wanted to score her off, there would have been no better way to do it."

She watched the expression on his face change, not quite sure if she had not probably just said something wrong.

„Go ahead!" he told her after a second when she didn´t go on.

She shrugged again.

„I kinda see the headline in front of me - ´Undertaker burns his and ex-model´s Melissa Parker´s former home to the ground!`...even with being well-known before - you would have become famous overnight !"

She didn´t need to add that Melissa would have hated him for getting all that medial attention.

Mark looked at her for a moment, then he had to grin. He liked the fact that they obviously appreciated the same kind of questionable but entertaining sardonic thoughts.

* * *

_If you liked it and don´t know what to say exactly - just give me a ´:)` ! Of course _all_ your reviews are welcome!_


	13. flashback - surprises

**- Flashback -**

* * *

When he arrived for work the first day after his injury break, Mark felt right at home again at the business.

„They discovered a serious waterpipe rupture about an hour ago", the assistant at the entrance had just informed him. „But ´cause it mainly affects the backstage area, the management decided to proceed with tonight´s show as planned. But unfortunately, as a consequence, people will have to move a little closer together as usual."

„That´s all ?" John alias John Bradshaw Layfield right next to Mark inquired.

„Well", the go-fer said with a shrug,"and there´s so far no hot water available backstage and only half the lavatories and restrooms are working, but..."

Mark only grinned, quietly shaking his head while they listened to the guy explaining to them where they would probably find a locker room to get ready. John padded his friends shoulder on their way in.

„Admit it, you missed that", John told him good-humoredly.

„Yeah, like hell!" Mark admitted, only half-serious, at that point completely unaware of just more surprises to come.

XXX

„Oh, this is ridiculous!"

Sheila was in a bad mood, Jade could tell. Generally not shaken by the usual hubbub at work, she was not taking things very well that night.

„Come on! Things could be worse", Jade mumbled.

„Look at this chaos!" Sheila complained. „I really have other things to do than run around _looking for people_ the whole night!"

They turned around a corner to get up the next flight of stairs. Jade stepped behind Sheila to make room for some guys transporting some bulky equipment parts down to the ground level. Glancing absent-mindedly at the workers and the stuff they were carrying, Sheila almost tripped.

„Hey, watch your step, alright ?" Jade suggested, evading being hit by Sheila´s spike heel at the last moment.

„By the way, is there any reason why you´re wearing these suicidal high heels tonight ?" she inquired. Sheila´s job as one of Steph´s assistants usually required too many errands to wear anything else than flats.

„There is this meeting in about ten minutes I´m supposed to accompany Steph to", Sheila answered. „It should have taken place about an hour ago, but these charity freaks haven´t shown up so far, so she asked me to take these papers to the guys - and my feet are already killing me! I start wondering if _anything _will work out as planned tonight!"

Sheila only waved the last remaining envelope in her hand to fan herself.

„Why don´t you just hand me these papers", Jade suggested. „I have to see Jeff anyway and can give them to him for you."

„Now, we should find the Hardys right around the corner if this damn plan is correct about anything and -"

She never finished the sentence. Speaking over her shoulder to Jade, she had finally missed a step. Losing her balance, she fell, taking Jade with her.

XXX

Jade´s reactions were good. She dropped the stuff she had been carrying, with Sheila landing right into her arms. But even Sheila´s comparatively small weight and the momentum of her fall made her lose balance as well. She reached for the handrail, but missed it. Sheila gave a high-pitched scream realizing that Jade had slowed her fall for a split second, but was still not able to stop it.

The painful impact Jade expected never came. Instead, the two women crashed right into someone´s much taller frame.

Sandwiched between their savior and the still screaming Sheila, Jade tried to realize what just had happened. She had crashed hard into the man behind her, banging her head in the process.

Mark staggered for a moment, but reacted fast enough to manage and stop the women´s fall, even if for the prize of John bumping right into him from behind.

„Whoa, ladies, easy!" Mark exclaimed while John stepped past him to give Sheila a hand. The Heartbreak Kid´s wife cursed very unladylike. Nodding gratefully to JBL for helping her back to her feet, she grabbed the shoe she had lost, examining the broken stiletto.

Jade looked down at the arm around her waist while she was put back to her feet herself, only catching a short glimpse at the numerous tattoos covering it before she was finally released.

„Next time stop complaining and watch your step!" she told Sheila, but her friend was still busy inspecting the damage and not listening. She took off the remaining shoe off as well, muttering words of disbelief under her breath.

„You´re alright ?"

Jade turned. Despite standing on the next higher step, she had still to look up to the Undertaker.

„Yeah", she muttered, rubbing the back of her head. „Thanks! Did I hurt you ?"

He shook his head with a crooked grin, only to follow Jade´s gaze down the stairs. They had almost had reached the upper end of the flight when Sheila had tripped.

„Would have been a nasty fall", he commented.

„That much is for sure", Jade mumbled. „So thanks for saving us."

„Well, you ladies take care, won´t ya ?" he only said, nodding to the both of them and

getting past them to join John.

Returning the nod, Jade watched the two men leave while Sheila inspected her ankle for damage.

„You didn´t tell me that Taker´s back", Jade remarked.

„Didn´t I ?" Sheila asked.

„No", Jade answered, still trying to overcome the slight shock. „In fact, you didn´t."

„Well, _I am _glad he is back!" Sheila commented, glancing down the stairs for a moment as well. „And now let´s go! I need to find another pair of shoes to wear for this press thing!"

Jade didn´t comment and followed her, silently agreeing.

XXX

„You can´t say that!" JBL insisted.

He and Mark had ended up with not only sharing their locker room with Glen and Randy Orton, but also with the Hardy brothers and their inevitable company, Amy alias Lita, as well. Currently injured and only meant to accompany the Hardys to the ring, the diva had fled the crammed ladies locker room at the first chance, by now busy watching Jade working with Matt. It had not taken long until John and Matt had ended discussing the latest news from the world of mixed martial arts, with retired MMA legend Randy Couture accepting the challenge of the newly risen star at the MMA heaven, Xavier Pretorio two nights ago, announcing his temporary return to the octagon by doing so.

„Why not ?" Matt argued. „Pretorio´s beaten Bryson in his first fight ever and nobody believed that he would survive the first five minutes !"

„Come on!" John argued. „Pretorio is ambitious, no doubt, but he lacks technique and he certainly lacks experience!"

„But he´s been undefeated for almost a year by now", Matt contradicted. „And Couture had already retired. He´s been out of training. He might underestimate that."

„That guy´s everything but out of shape", John contradicted. „Pretorio has a lot of stuff going on, advertising contracts, sponsoring stuff, he´s pretty busy. Say what you want, Couture would have to have a really bad day if he isn´t going to win against this rookie!"

„I just read somewhere that he´s still believed to be able to win", Jeff threw in. It brought him odd looks from John, Randy, Matt and Mark. Whereas the others followed the mixed martial arts scene at least frequently, Jeff was not exactly known as an expert on that field.

„And what would _you_ of all people know about that ?" Matt flamed his brother, expressing what John was obviously thinking. „You can stop trying to impress Jade here, you know - she knows that you don´t know a damn thing about it!"

„Well, I still think Pretorio is the better man", he then went on. „You´re up for a bet ?" he addressed John.

„You´re on, man !" John answered without hesitation.

Jade had been done with Matt by then and had just offered Jeff to take care of his handwrappings for him. She had sat down right next to him, pulling his hand to her lap and accepting the wraps from him. She looked for a moment down at her own hand as if she had to think about how to do it. The physio worked as unintrusive as always, but Mark nevertheless watched the scene doubtfully. Doing proper handwrappings was a job for a trainer. To his surprise, Jeff hadn´t even argued to let her do it. Watching the comfortable way the two of them interacted, he started wondering if they had something going on between them.

„Tell me something else", Randy chimed in meanwhile. „How many years younger is this guy than Couture ? Twenty ?"

„Well, _a lot!_" John answered with a shrug.

„About thirteen years, I guess", Mark joined the discussion, not taking his eyes from Jeff and Jade. She had made some progress by then, but was taking her time with what she was doing.

„Say, shouldn´t you leave that to a trainer ?" he finally addressed them, nodding towards the handwrappings.

„It´s alright", Jeff answered for her, waving his free hand. „She knows what she´s doing."

„Does she ?" Mark inquired doubtfully.

Meeting Mark´s eyes for a moment, Jade smiled.

„Yup", she only answered confidently, obviously not taking offence. „She does."

„Say", Matt suddenly addressed her. „What´s your opinion ?"

„About Couture versus Pretorio ?" Jade asked back.

„Whoa, now we´re already asking _the girls _for their opinion ?" Randy threw good-humoredly in. „The next thing you come up with is to send them into the ring out there!" he added, winking at Amy.

„Well ?" Matt asked Jade, ignoring Randy for the moment. „I´d like to hear an expert´s opinion!"

Jade kept her eyes on Jeff´s hand while she slightly shifted her weight. Matt wasn´t exactly doing her a favor to ask her such a question in front of all the guys. She didn´t consider herself an expert, but mused on the other hand that she had followed Randy Couture´s career long enough to know at least the facts.

„Couture is the better man", she answered simply.

As she had feared and expected, she had suddenly all the men´s attention.

„Hear, hear", JBL muttered.

She smiled.

„Well, I agree with you", she pointed the obvious out to him.

Mark stopped what he had been doing and put his hands down to his thighs for a moment.

„Why do you think so ?" he asked bluntly, his interest peaked.

Jade shrugged.

„He has a perfect training situation with not much else to focus on and Pretorio _is_ bound to be distracted by at least one of his other obligations. I don´t even think that Couture is so much better regarding technique - but he has the better nerves! And there´s no pressure - I mean, he accomplished all that´s to accomplish in his business and he has nothing to lose - a defeat won´t hurt him. And besides all that, Pretorio clearly made a mistake when he said that Couture is too old to get the job done anyway. I wouldn´t be surprised if Couture was up to accept Pretorio´s challenge from day one, and - while still stalling the guy - has been back at the gym on day one."

John nodded agreement while Randy grinned.

„Are you saying it´s like one of the rookies challenging Taker here for a ´mania match, getting all insolent when he doesn´t accept it at once and then starts telling him that it´s better that way ´cause he´s too old anyway and that he will spare him the blushes ?" he asked.

„I really hope you´re ready to get your ass kicked", Jeff told Randy amusedly, referring to he fact that Randy and JBL were supposed to fight Mark and Glen later. Randy only grinned. Taker looked fit and eager to take action and there could be no doubt that he was looking forward to finally return to what he claimed to be his yard. Teaming up with his in-story brother in addition that night, he and John would get their asses kicked anyway.

„Well, I really don´t know if it´s wise to come up with _that_ of all comparisons", Jade answered meanwhile diplomatically. „But I guess it´s kind of accurate", she added, giving Mark a small smile before she returned her gaze to Jeff´s hand.

Glen gave Mark a dig with the elbow, grinning.

„See - that´s what you get for injury break - nothing but disrespect!" he teased his friend.

„Well, what´s _your_ opinion on the whole thing ?" John addressed him. „I haven´t heard a single word from you about Pretorio versus Couture!"

„My opinion ?" Mark asked, getting up to get ready. Padding Glen´s shoulder to encourage his partner to get up as well, he only grinned at Randy.

„Well, it´s never been wise for some youngsters to underestimate the old boys club", he only rumbled, rolling his shoulders in that for him typically way. „Some people just need to be reminded of that from time to time", he added, turning to face Randy.

XXX

Later that night, with only Mark, the Hardys and Amy present, he asked Jade about her bruised face while she was treating him.

„That didn´t happen earlier that night, did it ?"

Jade grimaced and shook her head while Amy behind her laughed out.

„Go ahead!" the lady wrestler encouraged her friend. „Tell him!"

„Well", Jade said with a shrug,"I put my cousin into a sharpshooter (submission hold) at the weekend. That was the result."

Mark frowned, his expression reading ´Say again!`.

„Leads me _again_ to the same question", Matt murmured disparagingly. „Which part of ´don´t try this at home` you didn´t understand ?!"

„Would you stop telling me off now ?" Jade asked without looking at him. „It´s not like I had not already paid for it, you know."

„You tried to put your cousin into a sharpshooter and he gave you a black eye for that ?" Mark asked.

„Well, let´s say he sent me to the mat", she admitted with a shrug. „And he obviously overrated my abilities to break my fall."

„You should probably have found yourself a cousin of yours who´s _not_ a former MMA fighter", Jeff commented sarcastically. „You could probably have tried your luck on his little sister instead, what´s her name again ?"

„Her name", Amy answered Jeff´s question for Jade,"is Ashley - and from what I heard about that girl so far, if Jade is ever going to use a wrestling move on _her_, it will at least be a DDT !"

„You guys just have fun at my expense", Jade stated stoically. „I´ll keep pitying you meanwhile for your perfectly amiable families - where´s the fun ?!"

Mark only smirked at her stoic answer, still surprised how close the physio seemed to be with all three members of Team Extreme.

„Damn, I am hungry by now", Jeff stated, getting to his feet. „What about you ?" he asked Matt and Amy.

„Me too", Matt nodded. „You wanna come or do you want me to get you something ?" he addressed Amy.

„I´ll tag along", Amy stated, nodding grateful to the brothers who simultaneously reached to give her a hand to get to her feet. Jeff handed her the crutches she still needed.

„Then let´s go!"

Mark watched the three of them leave, glancing disapprovingly over the chaos they had just left in their wake. One look at their corner of the room would allow most of the people around to tell easily who was occupying the spot in question, even without them present. Mark would never doubt any of them as athletes, but their tendency to chaos bothered him.

Jade noticed his disapproving look and chuckled.

„I really like these guys but that chaos of theirs just drives me crazy", she said, wondering the next second why she was telling Mark.

His eyes still on the mess of clothes and gear on the other side of the room, he had been busy thinking meanwhile, his attention peaked by Matt´s words from earlier that night.

„So your cousin is a former MMA fighter ?" he asked. „´s that where you learned to do handwrappings ?"

She smiled, not taking her eyes from her work.

„I learned that from my dad", she answered. „But Jeff uses MMA-style handwrappings, so credits for that go to my cousin, yes."

„By the way, I wouldn´t do it if there was any risk that Jeff is going to get himself hurt out there", she added, feeling the sudden need to defend herself.

Mark´s gaze fell on her staff pass, but she had put it half under her shirt to avoid that it getting into her way while working.

„What is your last name again ?" he inquired, the question kind of incoherent. Jade followed his gaze, then smiled. There was no way that he was staring into her cleavage for the usual reason, the poloshirt hiding everything a guy might have considered worth seeing. She knew that Mark had quite an interest in the boxing and mixed martial arts scene and regarding what they had just been talking about, she could guess easily what his next question would be.

„Cooper", she answered his question politely. „And yes", she added with a mischievous smile ,"things most likely are what you suspect them to be like right now."

„Are you going to tell me that Ricky Cooper is your cousin?" he asked, quietly amused by the way she was taking his sudden interest.

Jade nodded, her smile growing, while Mark gave a small sound of honest surprise.

„That makes you the niece of ´Crusher` Charles Cooper!" he stated.

She laughed.

„Damn right!"

„And your father is Jim Cooper? Or has there been another Cooper sibling?"

„He was", she corrected, nevertheless still smiling.

Mark sat back, inadvertently interrupting her doings by that, baffled by what he had just found out. Her father had worked as a sparring partner, manager and consultant for his brother, a multiple times boxing champion. The two of them had been a notorious team in the world of boxing at their time, dominating the sport for years.

„We´ve been working for how long together - and I missed that ?" Mark asked in disbelief.

Jade only shrugged, that smile still on her face. He realized that it was kind of lopsided, one edge of her mouth rising slightly higher than the other.

„Well, it´s not that important for my job, isn´t it ? And my uncle´s career ended so long ago."

„Are you kidding me ?" Mark asked. „Charles Cooper is one of the greatest men that business has ever seen and besides that, one of my greatest idols. When he came back after that injury back then with damn nobody believing in him...I can tell you, he impressed me so much as a boy!"

„Well, he is quite a character", she admitted. „If I can believe all the old stories, a lot of people found it simply impossible to work with him."

Mark grinned.

„But he nevertheless left a huge legacy for all who followed him in that business anyway", he stated. „So did your father in his own way."

Jade made a small sound of amusement before she answered.

„People keep saying that", she commented. „_He_ would only say that he was just trying to keep his little brother out of trouble. And my mom still finds it ridiculous to hear people call him the voice of reason of their business."

„Well, he´s done a hell of a job over the years, and not only for his brother. Without him, young Andrew Barclay would _never_ have been able to be that successful. He would have ended a jailer instead of a champion."

Mark scowled before he went on.

„How long has it been since your father died?" he asked. „That was a great loss for the boxing world! He had so much experience with the whole business."

„It´s been seven years this year." Her smile broadened while some sadness appeared on her features at the same time. „And it was not only a great loss to the boxing world."

There was a small pause before Mark cleared his throat.

„That was not very tactful, was it ?" he mumbled.

She shrugged.

„It was a compliment and one he deserved, at least in my opinion, but as his daughter, well, I guess I am definitely prejudiced."

„Did you never think about getting into his business ?" Mark asked.

„Me ?" she asked back in surprise.

„Well, I thought about it", she answered when Mark only nodded, confirming that he had been serious about the question. „But when I was at the right age, women had just not enough lobby in that sport. Besides, If I ever had the chance, I´d more likely gotten into the mma stuff like my cousin. You know, when we were still small, my oldest sister once got attacked on the street and my mom insisted later on sending her and me for some self defense lessons. You probably know that Ricky´s mom died early and we kind of grew up together. Ironically, those self defense lessons were why he ended up with mixed martial arts instead of with classic boxing, but our fathers luckily never took offence in that. We trained together for a while as teenagers, but truthfully - I don´t think I´d been disciplined enough to be ever more than a hobby athlet. And I definitely prefer trying to make people feeling better for a living than busting them up, so..."

„You´re still in training ?" he inquired.

„Do I look like it ?" she asked sarcastically back, musing that the fact that she wasn´t should have been rather obvious.

Mark did not comment on that, suddenly catching himself picturing the woman in front of him in mixed martial arts sparring gear, only to find the result very pleasing. Compared to the mostly very bony divas he was surrounded by at work, it felt like a desirable change to him.

„So you´re not only Jim Cooper´s daughter and Charles Cooper´s niece, but also the woman who put Ricky Cooper in the sharpshooter", he summarized.

„Just don´t tell me off as well, alright ?" she begged. „Matt has been harassing me for that ever since."

„Frankly speaking, someone should probably tell your cousin off", Mark answered bluntly.

She smiled and nodded, privately surprised to find the Deadman for once that talkative.

„Well, he and his friends are not exactly as used to take care of their opponents as people in our business here are", she defended her cousin good-humoredly. „By the way, the black eye was worth it. Even if he didn´t, his sparring partners appreciated the show, I guess."

„But he didn´t tap out, huh ?"

Mark watched the small smile on her face broaden again. He liked the mischievous expression it brought back there.

„I did my best", she answered with a shrug.

„So, how did you end up in the wrestling business ?" he asked curiously. „I mean, your uncle and cousin surely have plenty of contacts into their own respective businesses."

With what he had just found out, he mused that she could probably do a lot better than she actually did.

To his surprise, she laughed out.

„Isn´t that obvious ?"

He only threw her a questionable look, waiting patiently for her to answer.

„I am a fan", she told him. „I have always been one."

„And your father and uncle didn´t take offence in that either ?" he inquired.

„Nope", she answered without hesitation. „Not at all. How you´re feeling ?"

He shook the arm she had been working on, carefully clenching his fist for a moment before opening his hand again.

„Pretty good, thanks."

„You´re welcome. And thanks again for catching me earlier! That fall would have ended up worse than my last one!"

„Well, considering your family background and your obviously dangerous job, you _should _probably think about doing some fall training", he suggested drily.

„You´re probably right about that", she agreed. „But..."

They were interrupted by Jade´s pager chirping.

She threw a short look at it and pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.

„Sorry", she said with an apologetic gesture. „Talking about work..."

He nodded understanding while she dialed Chris´ number to hear where she was needed.

„But just for the record regarding Pretorio and Couture", she told him while she was waiting for her boss to pick up the phone. „Pretorio is sixteen years younger than Couture."

Mark raised his eyebrows.

„You´re sure about that ?"

„Trust me", she answered with an adorably smug but still girlish grin. „Couture is one of _my _greatest idols and I know _everything_ there is to know about that guy who just dared to challenge the legend!"

„Smartass", Mark told her with a grin before she finally made it through to Chris. Unable to answer something because of her boss on the other end of the line, she only winked, waving to him with her free hand, only to turn away from him.

She hurried out of the room, leaving Mark astounded by what he had just heard and amused by her good-humoredly composed manner. He didn´t resent her for correcting him the moment before. If she had been a real smartass, she would have corrected him two hours earlier with the rest of guys still present, but for some reason, she hadn´t.


End file.
